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to cannonade

to cannonade

1 9.9
To attack a place with heavy guns like cannons for some time
  • verb
  • /ˌkænəˈneɪd/
  • Formal
translation icon : bombardear
  • As the enemy advanced, our soldiers responded by cannonading their ranks from the hilltop bunker.

Examples

  • Rain leached off the roof, and thunder cannonaded down the mountain ranges.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Row after row after row from the ring, the crowd is standing and cheering, as he just cannonaded Jake La Motta into a death defeat.

  • As the twenty-foot tide rolled in like a living army, cannonading off the cruel cliffs.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Glass shatters, and there's a white, chest-thumping concussion of flash grenades and the sound of all three doors caving in, like four or five breakfronts being cannonaded.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • The troops began to cannonade the enemy positions at dawn, sending shells flying through the air.

  • During the battle, the general ordered the artillery to cannonade the fortifications relentlessly for hours.

Synonyms

to shell
vsto cannonade
27 7.9

To fire metal containers filled with explosives at a place or people to cause damage

focuses on long sustained heavy artillery bombardment
to bombard
vsto cannonade
13 5.4

To attack something repeatedly by throwing things like stones or bombs

specifies long attacks using heavy artillery over a period
to fusillade
vsto cannonade
  • Literature
9.9

To fire a quick series of shots at someone or something

means a slower continuous heavy artillery bombardment rather than rapid bursts

Compounds

9.2

A sudden series of very loud bangs like explosions

How Intense

to bombard
13 5.4
to cannonade
  • Formal
1 9.9
to shell
27 7.9
to fire
1.0

Surface Forms

cannonade infinitive
cannonaded past
cannonaded past participle
cannonading present participle
cannonades third person singular

Morphology

cannonade = cannon (semi-transparent) = cannon + ade

The suffix '-ade' indicates a process or action, but the specific meaning of an attack or bombardment is not fully transparent.

Etymology

Cannonade comes from cannon 'a big gun' plus the ending -ade that shows an 'action'. So, as a verb, to cannonade means to attack or bombard by cannon over a period of time.