bombard
pronunciation
How to pronounce bombard in British English:
UK [bɒmˈbɑːd]
How to pronounce bombard in American English:
US [bɑːmˈbɑːrd]
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- Noun:
- a large shawm; the bass member of the shawm family
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- Verb:
- cast, hurl, or throw repeatedly with some missile
- throw bombs at or attack with bombs
Word Origin
- bombard (n.)
- early 15c., "catapult, military engine for throwing large stones," from Middle French bombarde "mortar, catapult" (14c.), from bombe (see bomb (n.)). The same word, from the same source, was used in English and French late 14c. in reference to the bass shawm, a bassoon-like musical instrument, preserving the "buzzing" sense in the Latin.
- bombard (v.)
- 1590s, from French bombarder, from bombarde "mortar, catapult" (see bombard (n.)). Figurative sense by 1765. Related: Bombarded; bombarding.
Example
- 1. So companies bombard children with advertisements from the day they are born .
- 2. Ddos attacks bombard a website with data until it cannot respond , rendering it inaccessible .
- 3. Food far beyond the simple needs of stomachs , and sex ( or at least images of it ) far beyond the needs of reproduction , bombard the modern man and woman , and are eagerly consumed .
- 4. Over the next few weeks , he devised a concept for a drive-through device that would use a small reactor to bombard passing containers with neutrons .
- 5. Gaddafi 's forces used grad rockets and mortars to bombard the rebel front lines in dafniya , 15 miles west of misrata .