Bombardier

bombardier

any of various small carabid beetles of the genus Brachinus, esp B. crepitans of Europe, which defend themselves by ejecting a jet of volatile fluid

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Bombardier

™ Canadian a snow tractor, typically having caterpillar tracks at the rear and skis at the front

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Bombardier

 

a military rank introduced in the 1680’s for artillerists among Peter the Great’s “boy-soldiers” (poteshnye). Since the late eighteenth century the term “bombardier” has designated a rank-and-file artillerist operating and servicing bombardment weapons (mortars, howitzers, and edinorogs [cannons cast in a form resembling a unicorn’s horn]); later, the term denoted a soldier’s rank (also bombardiergunner, bombardier-technician, bombardier-observer) in the artillery units of the Russian Army, corresponding to the rank of private first class in the infantry.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.