Other forms: volleys
A volley is many shots fired at the same moment. A volley of arrows, fire a volley, the first volley.
Firing together was the whole tactic of the musket era, because individual accuracy was poor and a wall of shot was not. A volley of abuse is the figurative use. In tennis and football a volley is a ball struck before it bounces. Note that the word comes from the French for a flight.
1nounvolleyMany shots fired at the same moment.
“The soldiers fired a volley into the air to honour the fallen general.”
2nounballA ball struck before it bounces.
“She rushed to the net and hit a volley past her opponent.”
volley is a simultaneous discharge.
Middle French volee means a flight, from Latin volare, to fly. Volatile and volley in sport come from the same flying.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷelH-
Latin
volatus
Vulgar Latin
volta
Middle French
volée — flight
English, today
volley
From Middle French volée (“flight”), from Vulgar Latin volta, from Latin volatus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA