Molotov cocktail

• Molotoff cocktail
• molotov cocktail
• Molotov's cocktail

Calque of Finnish Molotovin koktaili. Coined in Finland during the Winter War of 1939–40 between Finland and the Soviet Union, and named after then-Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986), who claimed the bombs the Soviet Union dropped on Finland were "airborne humanitarian food deliveries", prompting Finns to say their firebombs were "Molotov cocktails" (a drink to go with his food deliveries).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒ.ləˌtɒf ˈkɒk.teɪl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔ.ləˌtɔv ˈkɑk.teɪl/

• Audio (US):

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Molotov cocktail (plural Molotov cocktails)

1. A crude incendiary bomb made from a glass bottle, either filled with a flammable liquid such as petroleum and supplied with a rag for a fuse that is lit just before being hurled, or filled with such a mix of flammable liquids that it ignites itself when it is smashed and its contents are exposed to air.
   • 2025 March 19, Dan Cody, “What Is Dogequest? Website Exposes Tesla Owners' Personal Data”, in Newsweek‎^[1]:

     The site, which appears in the wake of anti-Elon Musk protests across the country, displays names, addresses, and phone numbers of Tesla owners on an interactive map and uses an image of a Molotov cocktail as its cursor. […] In one incident in Las Vegas, an individual dressed in black used Molotov cocktails to ignite five Tesla vehicles at a service center.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:Molotov cocktail.

• (bomb): mollie (informal), petrol bomb, Bandera smoothie
• Molotov, molotov

• Molotov breadbasket

D. L. Gold (1996), “Etymology and Etiology in the Study of Proper Nouns, Eponymous Lexemes, and Possibly Eponymous Lexemes”, in Onomastica: pismo poświęcone nazewnictwu geograficznemu i osobowemu oraz innym nazwom własnym, v 41, pp 109–38.