barrage

UK/ˈbæɹɑːʒ/US/bəˈɹɑʒ/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,142 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: barrages

A barrage is continuous heavy fire onto one area. An artillery barrage, a barrage of questions, under barrage.

The creeping barrage of the First World War moved forward on a timetable with infantry walking behind it, and men died when either the guns or the men were out of step. The figurative use is now commoner — a barrage of criticism. A barrage is also a dam.

Definitions of barrage

1nounbarrageContinuous heavy fire onto one area.C1
“The army opened a heavy barrage on the enemy trenches before dawn.”

barrage is a bombardment.

Where it comes from

French barrage means a barrier or dam, from barrer, to bar. The artillery sense came into English in 1859.

French
barrage — barrage, barrier
English, today
barrage

French barrage (“barrage, barrier”) c. 1859. Compare barrier.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Military & Defence

Practise this word

barrage in the wild

Chashma Barrage is a barrage on the River Indus in the Mianwali District of the Punjab province of Pakistan.
Chashma Barrage
The building of such a barrage would constitute an engineering project comparable with some of the world's biggest.
Severn Barrage
In recent decades it is the latter that has grown to be the primary focus for barrage ideas, and the others are now seen as useful side-effects.
Severn Barrage
The barrage is 287.5m long and has water throughout the year which is fed from the river Asan and the discharge channel of the river Yamuna.
Asan Barrage
Directly behind the barrage on its eastern flank, water reenters the Eastern Yamuna Canal on the west side of the Yamuna River.
Asan Barrage

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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