Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To attack (ground troops, for example) with a machine gun or cannon from a low-flying aircraft.
- n. An attack of machine-gun or cannon fire from a low-flying aircraft.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To attack (ground targets) with automatic gunfire from a low-flying aircraft.
- v. transitive, video games to sidestep; to move sideways without turning. A core mechanic of most first-person shooters.
- n. An attack of machine-gun or cannon fire from a low-flying aircraft.
- n. video games A sideways movement without turning.
WordNet 3.0
- v. attack with machine guns or cannon fire from a low-flying plane
- n. an attack of machine-gun fire or cannon fire from a low flying airplane
Etymologies
- German strafe ("punish"), a conjugated form of strafen ("punish") the British saw in German expressions like "Gott strafe England" ("God punish England") during the First World War. (Wiktionary)
- From German (Gott) strafe (England), (God) punish (England), a common World War I slogan, from strafen, to punish, from Middle High German strāfen, to contest, admonish. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“One was shot in the leg and another bayoneted through the hip, and all were sent back to camp, where they were awarded six weeks in the punishment camp, known as the strafe barracks.”
“Some days we would "strafe" him with trench mortars; on others we would give him a touch of our artillery.”
Over the top with the 25th Chronicle of events at Vimy Ridge and Courcellette
“I glanced up at the pollard willow over head, against which I had been leaning to steady my field glasses as I watched our artillery "strafe" the Germans who were attacking the Ghurkas.”
"The Red Watch" With the First Canadian Division in Flanders
“I _won't_, it's sheer waste -- still, I suppose one ought to be prepared -- oh, yes, give them one -- give them the word 'strafe'; nobody's got that.”
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, November 7, 1917
“On this occasion the usual stoppages and checks were multiplied by a brisk artillery 'strafe' upon the front, accompanied by all manner of coloured lights and rockets.”
The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
“When this playful little "strafe" was removed by an order from Hanover the accumulated parcels nearly caused the death of the Germans working in the distributing room.”
“Almost every afternoon, about 4-30 p.m., the usual trench mortar "strafe" would commence, and would last for an hour or so.”
“One night was marked by a very intense "strafe" for a short time with rifle grenades and trench mortars.”
The Story of the 6th Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry France, April 1915-November 1918
“It's true that he does jolly good work when the Huns 'strafe' his wire and he has to go out and mend it, but he doesn't go forward in an attack; he sits in his dug-out and telephones like blazes for reinforcements while the Germans pepper his roof for him with 'whizz-bangs.”
“When a concentration begins on a battery, either the gunners must go to their dugouts or run beyond the range of the shells until the "strafe" is over.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘strafe’.
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 221 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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I am : violent
Destructive verbs that speed up entropy. (Still working on definition of what I want; may add adjectives later.)
destroy, wreck, thrash, trash, beat up, annihilate, exterminate, disembowel, eviscerate, disintegrate, explode, bomb and 41 more...
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Words That Can Be Typed Entirely With...
Words made of the following: qwertasdfgzxcvb. I've stood on the shoulders of giants... users mollusque and reesetee made similar lists before I even existed on Wordnik. :)
stewardesses, red tea, waves, axes, wrest, qat, waver, created, dressed, stress, crater, vexes and 50 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Airborn
Words and phrases from Kenneth Oppel's book, Airborn.
running lights, starboard, bow, gondola, bullhorn, rudder man, gas cell, keel, catwalk, stern, cargo bay, machinist and 152 more...
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List 1
erudite, iniquitous, acrimonious, implacable, fractious, irascible, debonair, churlish, brusque, sycophantic, phlegmatic, indomitable and 108 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Addenda to the 1923 Printing of Webst...
Many of these words first came into common usage during World War I, and reflect not only the technological and scientific leaps of the early part of the 20th century, but the new experience of glo...
abri, ace, acidosis, airdrome, air fleet, airplane, air raid, airworthy, altimeter, anaphylaxis, anociassociation, anti-aircraft and 292 more...
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conglomeration
wherewithal, wan, zoonotic, zoonosis, nebulous, nefarious, nascent, quiescent, quell, undercroft, unwitting, unutterable and 658 more...
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Underworld
Don DeLillo
roily, reverie, slidy, bandido, mohair, brilliantine, stupe, juke step, jowly, juke, wicket, quidbit and 391 more...
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Vocabulary
My ever expanding vocabulary...
feuterer, abattoir, kibosh, sequin, shiftless, scrimshanker, sic, moniker, dogsbody, contranym, autoantonym, exhortation and 306 more...
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lisa's Words
dude, menopause, martini, mba, economics, toxic, epiphany, epitome, latte, procrastination, caffiene, cajole and 57 more...
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AmorFati's list
New(ish) words..
impetus, happenstance, coup de grâce, visceral, sentient, wistful, fingerling, transcend, canted, sinew, errant, harking and 85 more...
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Loanwords - Lehnwörter
List of German words in the English language, not necessarily with the same meaning. For times you want to sound über-smart.
foosball, witzelsucht, zeitgeist, wunderkind, shlep, angst, Götterdämmerung, hinterland, ersatz, gestalt, schnauzer, Weltschmerz and 34 more...
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Internationally Known
wunderkind, a la carte, brunette, blitz, passe, genre, du jour, kindergarten, gegenschein, encore, lederhosen, souvenir and 20 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for strafe.

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