bombardier

Borrowed from Old French bombarder (“a stone throwing engine”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌbɑm.bɚˈdɪɚ/, enPR: bäm'bər-dērʹ
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌbɒm.bəˈdɪə/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

bombardier (plural bombardiers)

1. (Canada, US) A bomber crew member who sights and releases bombs.
   • 1990, Charles W McArthur, Operations Analysis in the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force in World War II, American Mathematical Society, →ISBN, page 142:

     The bombardier then checked the gyroscopic stabilization of the bombsight and clutched in the electrical motor.

2. (Canada, Britain) A non-commissioned officer rank in artillery, equivalent to corporal. Abbreviated Bdr.
   • Wikipedia: Bombardier (Bdr) and Lance Bombardier (LBdr or L/Bdr) are British Army ranks used in the Royal Artillery and Royal Horse Artillery instead of (respectively) Corporal and Lance Corporal. In the Canadian Forces, the Artillery Branch uses the ranks of Master Bombardier and Bombardier instead of Master Corporal and Corporal.
3. An artilleryman; a gunner.
   • 1852, R. H. Major, Works Issued by the Hakluyt Society‎, translation of original by Sigismund von Herberstein, page 98:

     […] the officer to whom the command was deputed, to the amusement of a German bombardier, ordered one of the largest cannons to be placed under the gate of a fortress […]

   • 2001, Martin Garrett, Venice‎, →ISBN, page 37:

     In 1687, with notorious effects, Morosini attacked Athens: the Turks were using the Parthenon as a powder-store, and the German bombardiers blew it up.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Early Stories, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

     He has known for ages why a sturdy bombardier rides alongside the officer at the head of each battery, and why he is given a special name.

4. (entomology) A bombardier beetle.

• lance bombardier
• master bombardier
• bombardier beetle

• bombard
• bomb

• “bombardier” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.

From bombarder +‎ -ier

• IPA^(key): /bɔ̃.baʁ.dje/

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bombardier m (plural bombardiers)

1. (archaic) artilleryman, bombardier
2. (aircraft) bomber

• “bombardier” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

bombardier

1. Imperative singular of bombardieren.