[a. F. bombardier, f. bombard: see BOMBARD and -IER.]
† 1. A soldier in charge of a bombard, an artilleryman. Obs. or arch.
1560. Whitehorne, Arte Warre (1573), 82. Smithes, Masons, Ingeners, Bombardiers.
1611. Cotgr., Bombardier, a bombardier or gunner that vseth to discharge murthering peeces; and, more generally, any gunner.
1691. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 292. Our bombardeers are to practice the throwing bombs on ship board.
1709. Tatler, No. 88, ¶ 3. The bombardier tosses his balls into the midst of a city.
1779. G. Smith, Mil. Dict.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xxxix. Her two brothers are lieutenants in the bombardiers.
2. spec. † a. in 17th and 18th c.: One of the master-gunner’s men, employed more especially about the mortars and howitzers. Obs.
1688. List of (Jas. II.’s) Artillery Train, Firemaster to Trayne, Chief Bombardier, 12 Bombardiers, Chief Petardier, 4 Petardiers.
1746. Rep. Cond. Sir J. Cope, 55. He gave the Witness a Bombardeer and four Gunners.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Y y iij b. He has also the command of the gunners, matrosses, and bombardiers.
[1855. W. Sargent, Braddock’s Exped., 136, note. A matross is an artillery soldier of a ramk inferior to the bombardier or gunner.]
b. In the British army: A non-commissioned officer in the artillery. Several are attached to each battery of artillery.
1844. Queen’s Regul. Ord. Army, 4. Bombardiers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery rank as Corporals.
† 3. A bomb-ship. Obs.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2142/2. 20 Men of War, 2 Fire-Ships and 3 Bombardiers.
4. Comb., as bombardier beetle, a genus of beetles (especially Brachinus crepitans) which, when irritated, eject fluid with a sharp report and blue vapor; † bombardier-galliot, a kind of bomb-vessel.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), III. 147. The bombardier, or exploding beetle…. When it is touched, we are surprised with a noise resembling the discharge of a musket in miniature, during which a blue smoke may be seen to proceed from its extremity.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. iv. i. 214. The … Bombardier Beetles discharge a still more offensive fluid.
1805. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 391/2. A large flotilla … of Bomba[r]dier galliots, gun sloops and flat bottomed vessels completely armed.
