BOMBARDMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bombardment mean? 

• BOMBARDMENT (noun)
  The noun BOMBARDMENT has 4 senses:

1. the rapid and continuous delivery of linguistic communication (spoken or written)

2. the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area rather than hit a specific target

3. the act (or an instance) of subjecting a body or substance to the impact of high-energy particles (as electrons or alpha rays)

4. an attack by dropping bombs

  Familiarity information: BOMBARDMENT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BOMBARDMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The rapid and continuous delivery of linguistic communication (spoken or written)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

barrage; bombardment; onslaught; outpouring

Context example:

a bombardment of mail complaining about his mistake

Hypernyms ("bombardment" is a kind of...):

language; linguistic communication (a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols)

Derivation:

bombard (address with continuously or persistently, as if with a barrage)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area rather than hit a specific target

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

barrage; barrage fire; battery; bombardment; shelling

Context example:

the shelling went on for hours without pausing

Hypernyms ("bombardment" is a kind of...):

fire; firing (the act of firing weapons or artillery at an enemy)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act (or an instance) of subjecting a body or substance to the impact of high-energy particles (as electrons or alpha rays)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("bombardment" is a kind of...):

radiation (the act of spreading outward from a central source)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An attack by dropping bombs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

bombardment; bombing

Hypernyms ("bombardment" is a kind of...):

attack; onrush; onset; onslaught ((military) an offensive against an enemy (using weapons))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bombardment"):

bombing run (that part of the flight that begins with the approach to the target; includes target acquisition and ends with the release of the bombs)

area bombing; carpet bombing; saturation bombing (an extensive and systematic bombing intended to devastate a large target)

Derivation:

bombard (throw bombs at or attack with bombs)

 Context examples 

The use of anesthetics in the central or peripheral nervous system to diminish or eliminate the bombardment of the CNS with nociceptive input, which minimizes stress response, adverse spinal reflexes, and wind-up.

(Neural Block, NCI Thesaurus)

“I have thought of that,” said I, for I made sure he was thinking of a bombardment of the fort.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Scientists have long believed that after the Moon’s formation, the early Earth experienced a long period of bombardment that diminished about 3.8 billion years ago.

(NASA-funded Simulations Show How Massive Collisions Delivered Metal to Early Earth, NASA)

Tiny particles can get electrically charged by ultraviolet light from the Sun or by plasma clouds emanating from micrometeoroid bombardment of the rings.

(Saturn is Losing Its Rings, NASA)

However, comet bombardment continued to tear things up, leading to the birth of Hippocamp, which might be considered a third-generation satellite.

(Tiny Neptune Moon Spotted by Hubble May Have Broken from Larger Moon, NASA)

Somehow, in the face of all this bombardment, the cold front edge has survived intact.

(Scientists Surprised by Relentless Cosmic Cold Front, NASA)

When the scientists compared those to the timeline of Earth’s craters, they found the two bodies had recorded the same history of asteroid bombardment—one that contradicts theories about Earth’s impact rate.

(Moon Data Sheds Light on Earth’s Asteroid Impact History, NASA)

A dating method that uses the disintegration of the [SUP]14[/SUP]C atom to determine the age of sample containing carbon. [SUP]14[/SUP]C is produced in the atmosphere by cosmic ray bombardment, and has a half-life of 5570 years, making it useful for dating samples in the range of 0-40,000 years.

(Carbon dating, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

And being no stranger to the art of war, I gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea fights, ships sunk with a thousand men, twenty thousand killed on each side, dying groans, limbs flying in the air, smoke, noise, confusion, trampling to death under horses’ feet, flight, pursuit, victory; fields strewed with carcases, left for food to dogs and wolves and birds of prey; plundering, stripping, ravishing, burning, and destroying.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But towards the end of the bombardment, though still I durst not venture in the direction of the stockade, where the balls fell oftenest, I had begun, in a manner, to pluck up my heart again, and after a long detour to the east, crept down among the shore-side trees.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)