▪ I. bombard, n.
(ˈbɒm-, ˈbʌmbəd)
Forms: 5–7 bumbard, 6 boumbard, 5–9 bombarde, 6– bombard.
[a. OF. bombarde ‘a murthering-piece’ (Cotgr.), in med.L. bombarda, originally a mechanical engine for throwing large stones (see Du Cange); prob. f. L. bombus a humming noise + -arda, fem. form of Romance suffix -ard.]
I. 1. a. The earliest kind of cannon, usually throwing a stone ball or a very large shot.
| c 1430 Lydg. Bochas i. iii. (1544) 6 a, That none engine may thereto attayne, Gonne, nor bumbard by no subtiltie. 1481 Caxton Reynard 77 All them that ben archers, and haue bowes, gonnes, bombardes..to besiege Maleperduys. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cxliv. 172 Fortyfied with springalles, bombardes, bowes, and other artillary. 1573 Sege Edinb. Castel in Scot. Poems 16th C. (1801) II. 290 The bumbard stanis directit fell sa euin. 1623 Cockeram, Bombards, great guns. 1664 Floddan F. iii. 22 With Bombard shot the walls he bet. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. 219 Towards the end of the 14th century pieces called bombardes were in existence, which threw balls of stone weighing as much as 200 lbs... These heavy bombards proved to be of very little practical use. |
† b. transf. The ball or stone thrown by a bombard. Obs. rare—1.
| 1575 Churchyard Chippes (1817) 153 A kind of shot that we great bombards call..And where that huge and mighty stone did fall..it did great wonders breede. |
† c. Bombarding volley, shot. Obs. rare—1.
| 1809 J. Barlow Columb. vii. 228 Then bids the battering floats his labors crown, And pour their bombard on the shuddering town. |
2. A bomb-vessel or bomb-ketch; = bomb n. 4.
| 1799 Nelson in Nicolas Disp. (1845) IV. 65 Buonaparte has passed Corsica in a Bombard, steering for France. 1812 Examiner 23 Nov. 740/1 The vessels captured consisted of a bombard, a lugger, 3 feluccas. 1860 Earl Dundonald Autobiog. Seaman I. v. 99 A French bombard bore up, hoisting the national colours. |
† 3. a. A leather jug or bottle for liquor; a blackjack. Probably from some resemblance to the early cannons. Obs. exc. Hist.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 497 That huge Bombard of Sacke. 1610 ― Temp. ii. ii. 20 Like a foule bumbard that would shed his licquor. 1635 Heywood Philocoth., The great black jacks and bombards at the Court, which, when the Frenchmen first saw, they reported..that the Englishmen used to drink out of their bootes. |
† b. fig. A toper. Obs. See also bumbard.
| 1617 J. Taylor in Shaks. C. Praise 126 This bezzeling Bombards longitude, latitude, altitude, and crassitude. |
† II. 4. a. A deep-toned wooden musical instrument of the bassoon family. Obs. Also bombardo.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 358 Suche a soune Of bombarde and of clarioune. ? c 1475 Sqr. lowe Degre 1072 With pypes, organs and bumbarde. 1878 Statham in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 151 A class of instruments named bombards, pommers, or brummers..seems to have been the immediate predecessor of the bassoon. |
b. [Also in Fr. form.] A foot reed-stop of an organ.
| 1876 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms. 1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 833/1, 32 contra trombone, posaune, bombarde, sackbut (reed). |
III. 5. Comb., as † bombard-like adv.; † bombard-man, a servant who carried out liquor to customers, a pot-boy; † bombard-phrase (trans. of L. ampulla), inflated language, bombast.
| 1664 Floddan F. vi. 53 Bombard like, did boasts discharge. a 1616 B. Jonson Love Restored 86 A bombard man, that brought bouge for a Countrey Lady or two that fainted. 1640 ― Horace's Ars Poet. VII. 173 (N.) They..must throw by Their bombard-phrase, and foot and half-foot words. |
▪ II. bombard, v.
(bɒmˈbɑːd)
[f. F. bombarder (16th c.) ‘to discharge a bumbard, to batter or murder with bumbards’ (Cotgr.), f. bombard n.: see prec. It has no immediate relation to bomb.]
† 1. intr. To fire off bombards or heavy guns. Obs. (exc. as absol. use of 2.)
| 1598 Florio, Sbombardare, to shoote off peals of guns, to bombard. [1695 Lond. Gaz. No. 3096/3 Colonel Richards, with nine English Bomb Vessels..began to Bombard.] |
2. trans. a. To batter with shot and shell; to assault with ordnance so as to destroy, disable, or reduce to submission.
| 1686 Lond. Gaz. No. 2211/3 General Caraffa is making Preparations to bombard Agria. 1692 Siege Lymerick 7 We still continued to Batter and Bombard the Town very furiously. 1813 Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. XI. 33 If the town is to be bombarded, it may as well be done from the sand hills. 1858 Froude Hist. Eng. IV. 427 The admiral.. thought they might anchor and bombard the town. |
b. fig. To assail with persistent force or violence.
| 1765 Falconer Demag. 405 Where fulminating, rumbling eloquence..bombards the sense. 1853 Bright Admiss. Jews Parl. in Sp. (1876) 527 Go on year after year bombarding the Lords with this Jew bill. a 1884 M. Pattison Mem. 332 Milton..bombarding Salmasius with foul epithets. |
3. Cookery. To stuff (a fillet of veal).
| 1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery ii. 28 Bombarded veal. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 93 Bombarded Veal. Cut the bone nicely out of a fillet, etc. 1837 Disraeli Venetia i. iv. (1871) 15 The tempting delicacies of bombarded veal. |
4. Physics. To subject to a stream of ions or sub-atomic particles.
| 1907 J. J. Thomson in Phil. Mag. XIII. 562 All gums &c. when bombarded by the rays are liable to give off gas. 1913 Chem. Abstr. 1442 The most abundant supply of these gases was obtained by the process of bombarding with cathode rays metals and other substances. 1932 Discovery May 139/1 The tiny nuclei at the centre of certain light elements were bombarded with the swift massive particles spontaneously ejected by the element polonium. 1941 Ann. Reg. 1940 352 Nishing and others..examined the products obtained by bombarding uranium with fast neutrons. 1969 Times 11 Feb. 12/4 Elements beyond uranium are not known to occur naturally, although several have been prepared in the laboratory by bombarding heavy nuclei with atomic particles in circumstances that encourage fusion. |