bombard

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To attack with bombs, shells, or missiles.
2. v. To assail persistently, as with requests. See Synonyms at attack, barrage².
3. v. To irradiate (an atom).
4. v. To attack with a cannon firing stone balls.
5. n. An early form of cannon that fired stone balls.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The name generally given in Europe to the cannon during the first century of its use. The earliest bombards were more like mortars than modern cannon, throwing their shot (originally stone balls) at a great elevation; many were open at both ends, the shot being introduced at the breech, which was afterward stopped by a piece wedged or bolted into place.
2. n. See bombardelle.
3. n. A small vessel with two masts, like the English ketch, used in the Mediterranean; a bomb-ketch.
4. n. A large leathern jug or bottle for holding liquor. See black-jack, 1.
5. n. Figuratively, a toper.
6. n. A medieval musical instrument of the oboe family, having a reed mouthpiece and a wooden tube. The name was properly applied to a large and low-pitched instrument (whence the name bombardon for a heavy reed-stop in organ-building); but it was also used for small instruments of the same class, which were known as basset-bombards and bombardi piccoli.
7. n. plural A style of breeches worn in the seventeenth century, before the introduction of tight-fitting knee-breeches. They reached to the knee, and were probably so named because they hung loose and resembled the leathern drinking-vessels called bombards.
8. n. [From the verb.] An attack with bombs; a bombardment.
9. To fire off bombards or cannon.
10. To cannonade; attack with bombs; fire shot and shell at or into; batter with shot and shell.
11. To attack with missiles of any kind; figuratively, assail vigorously: as, to bombard one with questions.

Wiktionary

1. n. a medieval primitive cannon, used chiefly in sieges for throwing heavy stone balls.
2. n. obsolete a bassoon-like medieval instrument
3. n. obsolete a large liquor container made of leather, in the form of jug or a bottle.
4. v. To attack something with bombs, artillery shells or other missiles or projectiles.
5. v. figuratively To attack something or someone by directing objects at them.
6. v. physics To direct at a substance an intense stream of high-energy particles, usually sub-atomic or made of at most a few atoms.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Gun.) A piece of heavy ordnance formerly used for throwing stones and other ponderous missiles. It was the earliest kind of cannon.
2. n. Poetic & R. A bombardment.
3. n. obsolete A large drinking vessel or can, or a leather bottle, for carrying liquor or beer.
4. n. obsolete Padded breeches.
5. n. (Mus.), obsolete See bombardo.
6. v. To attack with bombards or with artillery; especially, to throw shells, hot shot, etc., at or into.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. address with continuously or persistently, as if with a barrage
2. v. throw bombs at or attack with bombs
3. n. a large shawm; the bass member of the shawm family
4. v. cast, hurl, or throw repeatedly with some missile
5. v. direct high energy particles or radiation against