Forms: 5–7 bumbard, 6 boumbard, 5–9 bombarde, 6– bombard. [a. OF. bombarde ‘a murthering-piece’ (Cotgr.), in med.L. bombarda, originally a mechanical engine for throwing large stones (see Du Cange); prob. f. L. bombus a humming noise + -arda, fem. form of Romance suffix -ARD.]
I. 1. The earliest kind of cannon, usually throwing a stone ball or a very large shot.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, I. iii. (1514), 6 a. That none engine may thereto attayne, Gonne, nor bumbard by no subtiltie.
1481. Caxton, Reynard, 77. All them that ben archers, and haue bowes, gonnes, bombardes … to besiege Maleperduys.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cxliv. 172. Fortyfied with springalles, bombardes, bowes, and other artillary.
1573. Sege Edinb. Castel, in Scot. Poems 16th C. (1801), II. 290. The bumbard stanis directit fell sa euin.
1623. Cockeram, Bombards, great guns.
1664. Floddan F., iii. 22. With Bombard shot the walls he bet.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., 219. Towards the end of the 14th century pieces called bombardes were in existence, which threw balls of stone weighing as much as 200 lbs…. These heavy bombards proved to be of very little practical use.
† b. transf. The ball or stone thrown by a bombard. Obs. rare–1.
1575. Churchyard, Chippes (1817), 153. A kind of shot that we great bombards call … And where that huge and mighty stone did fall … it did great wonders breede.
† c. Bombarding volley, shot. Obs. rare–1.
1809. J. Barlow, Columb., VII. 228. Then bids the battering floats his labors crown, And pour their bombard on the shuddering town.
2. A bomb-vessel or bomb-ketch; = BOMB sb. 4.
1799. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), IV. 65. Buonaparte has passed Corsica in a Bombard, steering for France.
1812. Examiner, 23 Nov., 740/1. The vessels captured consisted of a bombard, a lugger, 3 feluccas.
1860. Earl Dundonald, Autobiog. Seaman, I. v. 99. A French bombard bore up, hoisting the national colours.
† 3. A leather jug or bottle for liquor; a blackjack. Probably from some resemblance to the early cannons. Obs. exc. Hist.
1595. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 497. That huge Bombard of Sacke. Ibid. (1610), Temp., II. ii. 20. Like a foule bumbard that would shed his licquor.
1635. Heywood, Philocothonista, 45. The great black Iacks, and bombards at the Court, which, when the French-men first saw, they reported … that the English-men used to drinke out of their Bootes.
† b. fig. A toper. Obs. See also BUMBARD.
1617. J. Taylor, in Shaks. C. Praise, 126. This bezzeling Bombards longitude, latitude, altitude, and crassitude.
† II. 4. A deep-toned wooden musical instrument of the bassoon family. Obs. Also BOMBARDO.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 358. Suche a soune Of bombarde and of clarioune.
c. 1475[?]. Sqr. lowe Degre, 1072. With pypes, organs and bumbarde.
1878. Statham, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 151. A class of instruments named bombards, pommers, or brummers … seems to have been the immediate predecessor of the bassoon.
III. 5. Comb., as † bombard-like adv.; † bombard-man, a servant who carried out liquor to customers, a pot-boy; † bombard-phrase (trans. of L. ampulla), inflated language, bombast.
1664. Floddan F., vi. 53. Bombard like, did boasts discharge.
a. 1616. B. Jonson, Love Restored, 86. A bombard man, that brought bouge for a Countrey Lady or two that fainted. Ibid. (1640), Horace’s Ars Poet., VII. 173 (N.). They … must throw by Their bombard-phrase, and foot and half-foot words.
