Pom-pom, Pompom n. (Mil.) Originally, a Vickers-Maxim one-pounder automatic machine cannon using metallic ammunition fed from a lopped belt attached to the gun; popularly so called from its peculiar drumming sound in action. More recently, the term is applied mostly to automatic antiaircraft cannons.
... shrapnel. They reached a point within five hundred yards of the building, but the fire was too hot, and they wheeled round in rapid retreat. Dismounting in a mealie-patch they skirmished up towards the farmhouse once more, but they were again checked by the fire of the defenders and by a pompom which Colonel Keir had brought up. No progress whatever was made by ... — The Great Boer War • Arthur Conan Doyle
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