barrage

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbæɹɑːʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /bəˈɹɑʒ/

  • Audio (US)

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  • Audio (New Jersey)

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• (anglicised) IPA^(key): /ˈbæɹɑːdʒ/, /ˈbæɹɪdʒ/
• Rhymes: (US) -ɑːʒ
• Hyphenation: bar‧rage

barrage (plural barrages)

1. An artificial obstruction, such as a dam, in a river designed to increase its depth or to divert its flow.

   Hyponym: dam

2. (military) A heavy curtain of artillery fire directed in front of one's own troops to screen and protect them.
   • 2014, Edward G. Lengel, A Companion to the Meuse-Argonne Campaign, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 350:

     The 75s of V Corps fired a standard rolling barrage, while the larger 155 mm and 8-inch pieces fired standing barrages 500 meters beyond the barrage line. For the rolling barrage, one battery in each battalion fired low, bursting shrapnel instead of the standard high explosive.

3. A concentrated discharge of projectile weapons.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎:

     Blast after blast, fiery outbreak after fiery outbreak, like a flaming barrage from within, […] most of Edison's grounds soon became an inferno. As though on an incendiary rampage, the fires systematically devoured the contents of Edison's headquarters and facilities.

4. (by extension) An overwhelming outburst of words, especially of criticism.
   • 2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always right”, in The Economist:

     Lesser lawyers who were vague in oral argument faced a barrage of sarcasm or, if he agreed with them, constant chiding to do better.

5. (fencing) A "next hit wins" contest to determine the winner of a bout in case of a tie.
6. Type of firework containing a mixture of firework types in one single-ignition package.

• balloon barrage
• barrage balloon
• barrage jamming
• counterbarrage
• rolling barrage
• tidal barrage

barrage (third-person singular simple present barrages, present participle barraging, simple past and past participle barraged)

1. (transitive) To direct a barrage at.

   Synonym: bombard

   • 2020, Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half, Dialogue Books, page 259:

     Maybe now her daughter would stop barraging her with questions about her past.

• “barrage, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• barrage (dam) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• barrage (artillery) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From barrer +‎ -age.

• IPA^(key): /ba.ʁaʒ/, /bɑ.ʁaʒ/

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barrage m (plural barrages)

1. dam, barrage
2. barrier, roadblock
3. (sports) playoff

• faire barrage à
• tir de barrage

• → Polish: baraż
• → Portuguese: barragem
• → Turkish: baraj

• “barrage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• “barrage” in Cordial.
• “barrage” in Dictionnaire français en ligne Larousse.
• “barrage” in Le Dictionnaire.

• bagarre, bagarré