broadside

broadside

English

Etymology

broad +‎ side

Noun

broadside (plural broadsides)

1. (nautical) One side of a ship above the water line; all the guns on one side of a warship; their simultaneous firing.
2. (by extension) A forceful attack, be it written or spoken.
   • 1993, Peter Kolchin, American Slavery (Penguin History, paperback edition, 34)

     Although slaveholders managed - through a combination of political compromise and ideological broadside - to contain the threat of a major anti-slavery compaign by fellow Southerners, planters could never be totally sure of non-slaveholders' loyalty to the social order.

   • 2013, Luke Harding and Uki Goni, Argentina urges UK to hand back Falklands and 'end colonialism (in The Guardian, 3 January 2013)

     Fernández's diplomatic broadside follows the British government's decision last month to name a large frozen chunk of Antarctica after the Queen – a gesture viewed in Buenos Aires as provocative.

   • 2022 December 14, Mel Holley, “Network News: Strikes go on as RMT rejects RDG's "detrimental" offer”, in RAIL, number 972, page 9:

     He delivered a broadside to the RMT leadership, saying: "This response to a significantly enhanced offer exposes their true priority - using the British public and NR workers as pawns in a fight with the Government.

3. A large sheet of paper, printed on one side and folded.
4. The printed lyrics of a folk song or ballad; a broadsheet.

Derived terms

• broadside ironclad
• broadside on

Translations

one side of a warship

Bulgarian: борд (bg) m (bord) Danish: bredside Finnish: täyslaidallinen (fi) (guns or their firing) French: bordée (fr), flanc (fr) Italian: bordata (it) m Japanese: 舷側砲 (げんそくほう, gensoku-hō) Norwegian: Bokmål: bredside (no) m or f Spanish: costado (es) m Swedish: bredsida (sv) c

all the guns on one side of a warship

the simultaneous firing of all the guns on one side of a warship

Bulgarian: бордов залп m (bordov zalp) Danish: bredside c French: bordée (fr) m German: Breitseite (de) f Italian: bordata (it) f Norwegian: Bokmål: bredside (no) m or f, breiside m or f Nynorsk: breiside f Polish: salwa burtowa f Spanish: andanada (es) f

written or spoken attack

Finnish: täyslaidallinen (fi) Norwegian: Bokmål: bredside (no) m or f Spanish: andanada (es) f

large sheet, printed on one side and folded

printed lyrics

Danish: skillingsvise c Finnish: arkkiveisu (fi) Swedish: skillingtryck (sv) n

Adverb

broadside (not comparable)

1. Sideways; with the side turned to the direction of some object.
   • 1964 June, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 388:

     [...] the slight fluctuations [in speed] were due to a strong side-wind, which caught the train broadside along exposed stretches of the line.

Translations

with side towards something

Finnish: sivuittain, kyljittäin Irish: go cliathánach Maori: (please verify) paeroa, koronae

Verb

broadside (third-person singular simple present broadsides, present participle broadsiding, simple past and past participle broadsided)

1. (transitive) To collide with something side-on.

References

• broadside in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• broadside in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• “broadside”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• sideboard