Find the word definition

Crossword clues for fusillade

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
fusillade
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At the beginning of the Secretary of State for the Environment's speech there was a fusillade of Government interventions.
▪ Desktop publishing was only the opening salvo of a fusillade of developments that would change the way people worked.
▪ She aligned the sights of her rifle and loosed a fusillade of bolts that split the rocks apart.
▪ Windows were blasted inwards by the fusillade.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fusillade

Fusillade \Fu"sil*lade"\, n. [F. fusillade, cf. It. fucilata. See Fusil a firelock.] (Mil.) A simultaneous discharge of firearms.

Fusillade

Fusillade \Fu"sil*lade"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fusillader; p. pr. & vb. n. Fusillading.] To shoot down of shoot at by a simultaneous discharge of firearms.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
fusillade

"simultaneous discharge of firearms," 1801, from French fusillade, from fusiller "to shoot" (18c.), from fusil "musket" (see fusilier). As a verb from 1816.

Wiktionary
fusillade

n. 1 the simultaneous firing of a number of firearms 2 (context by extension English) a rapid outburst vb. to fire, or attack with, a fusillade

WordNet
fusillade
  1. n. rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms; "our fusillade from the left flank caught them by surprise" [syn: salvo, volley, burst]

  2. v. attack with fusillade

Wikipedia
Fusillade

A fusillade is the simultaneous and continuous firing of a group of firearms on command. It stems from the French word fusil, meaning firearm, and fusiller meaning to shoot.

In the context of military tactics, the term is generally used to refer to a type of organized and concentrated gunfire from a military unit armed with small arms, and initiated by a command from a commanding officer. The term can also be used as a verb, as in "to fusillade an enemy position". Suppressing fire (done in conjunction with fire and movement) is often in the form of a fusillade.

Usage examples of "fusillade".

The alguazil of the Holy Office was in the very act of setting the gyves upon my legs when the first shot was fired, followed almost at once by a fusillade.

As Biter swung hard round on to the wind, Will heard a ragged fusillade.

Yuuzhan Vong rearguard was pouring around the devastation on all sides, trading fusillades with Fleet Group One as they streamed past into the deactivated mine shell.

Under that fusillade, Alexander Talbor, man of fivefold crime, wilted and sprawled dead.

Balked in a revolver fusillade, Konk Zitz had brought up a different method of attack.

Bishop launched a fusillade of theological lyddite at Bruno, declaring that any Churchman who would so much as hold converse with such a wretch was disgraced forever, and that the propositions Bruno wished to argue were unthinkable to a self-respecting man.

Cries of pococurante and drum of quickstep waned, overwhelmed by a thunderous fusillade, so loud that I guessed the rest of the tour would be delivered with gestures.

In the evening the signal tower was surrounded by men in stone sungars, who kept up an incessant fusillade, and made all exposure, even for an instant, perilous.

I kicked a hole in the soft earth the foothold gave way, and I was just contemplating going forward and getting on to the bank where the nullah Rattened out, when a fusillade of shots followed by shouting broke out in the direction of the camp.

Miguel had stepped forward in a rage and emptied another fusillade from his Sovietmade AK-47 into the recumbent body.

Now round him undismayed The cannon thunders, and at night he lies At peace beneath the eternal fusillade.

Before a second fusillade from either side, strenuous efforts by both Wheat and the commander of the South Carolinian skirmishers prevented any more bloodshed.

I was awakened with a start by cries of alarm, and scarce were my eyes opened, nor had I yet sufficiently collected my wits to quite realize where I was, when a fusillade of shots rang out, reverberating through the subterranean corridors in a series of deafening echoes.

Farther along the valley, also within the acacia grove, the Gallas of Ras Kullah were celebrating the victory also, and there was the occasional faint outburst of drunken shouts and a fusillade of shots from captured Italian rifles.

The only answer to this was a fusillade of further shots, followed by the opening of the port lids nearest us, and the sudden appearance of the long black noses of several cannon, along with a more intense gust of stink.