bombard

• Verb:
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌbɒmˈbɑːd/
  • (US) IPA^(key): /ˌbɑmˈbɑɹd/, /bəmˈbɑɹd/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Noun:
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɒmˌbɑːd/
  • (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɑmˌbɑɹd/

From Middle French bombarde (“a bombard, mortar, catapult"; also "a bassoon-like musical instrument”), from Latin bombus (“buzzing; booming”).

bombard (plural bombards)

1. a medieval primitive cannon, used chiefly in sieges for throwing heavy stone balls.
   • Knolles

     They planted in divers places twelve great bombards, wherewith they threw huge stones into the air, which, falling down into the city, might break down the houses.

2. (obsolete) a bassoon-like medieval instrument
3. (obsolete) a large liquor container made of leather, in the form of a jug or a bottle.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 2

     […] yond same black cloud, yond huge one, / looks like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor.

4. (poetic, rare) A bombardment.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Joel Barlow to this entry?)

5. (music) A bombardon.

From French bombarder, from Middle French bombarde (“a bombard”)

bombard (third-person singular simple present bombards, present participle bombarding, simple past and past participle bombarded)

1. To attack something with bombs, artillery shells or other missiles or projectiles.
2. (figuratively) To attack something or someone by directing objects at them.
3. (physics) To direct at a substance an intense stream of high-energy particles, usually sub-atomic or made of at most a few atoms.

• bomb