noun
- an aerial bomb containing high explosives and weighing from four to eight tons, used as a large-scale demolition bomb.
- a motion picture, novel, etc., especially one lavishly produced, that has or is expected to have wide popular appeal or financial success.
- something or someone that is forcefully or overwhelmingly impressive, effective, or influential: The campaign was a blockbuster.
- a real-estate speculator who practices blockbusting.
noun informal
- a large bomb used to demolish extensive areas or strengthened targets
- a very successful, effective, or forceful person, thing, etc
- a lavish film, show, novel, etc, that proves to be an outstanding popular success
also block-buster, big bomb (4,000 pounds or larger, according to some sources), 1942, from block (n.) in the “built-up city square” sense. Entertainment sense is attested from 1957. U.S. sense of “real estate broker who sells a house to a black family on an all-white neighborhood,” thus sparking an exodus, is from 1955.