[Formerly two words: BROAD a. + SIDE sb.]
1. Naut. ‘The whole of that side of a ship above the water which is situate between the bow and the quarter’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.).
1591. Garrard, Art Warre, 89. That they turne their broad sides as if they should encounter the enemie.
a. 1678. Raleigh, Roy. Navy, 26. To plant great red Port-holes in their broad sides.
1742. Woodroofe, in Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. II. xxiii. 98. They let the vessel run with her broad side ashore.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), H ij. A squall of wind laid the ship on her broadside.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 106. A heavy sea struck us on the broadside.
attrib. 1862. Thornbury, Turner, I. 292. It is a broadside view, and represents the Redoubtable as sinking.
b. Broadside to (or and) broadside: with the side of one ship to that of another; transf. side by side, close to each other.
1696. Kennett, Rom. Antiq., II. IV. (1713), 241. If they happen’d to swing broad-side to broad-side.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), To lie alongside of; to be broadside and broadside.
c. Broadside on, broadside to, (a broadside obs.): with the side of the vessel turned fully to the object considered; transversely, across the length.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5475/3. He had ranged his Ships … a Broadside cross the River.
1800. A. Duncan, Mariner’s Chron. (1804), II. 82. I desired them not to come broadside-to, but stern-on.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xv. 41. We drifted down, broadside on, and went smash into the Lagoda.
d. Of the side of something other than a ship.
1632. Rutherford, Lett., xxiv. (1862), I. 95. He will lay the door on the broadside and come in.
c. 1661. Argyle’s Last Will, in Harl. Misc. (1746), VIII. 30/1. [Argyle] … stood firm on his own Interest, and could oppose a Broadside to every Emergency of Fortune.
1868. Lockyer, Heavens (ed. 3), 340. A line 95,000,000 miles in length, looked at broadside on at this distance, would appear but as an imperceptible point.
1884. Speedy, Sport, xiv. 233. They stopped and looked round, showing their broadsides the one just above the other. Ibid., xviii. 322. Being at close range, and broadside on, the two largest were shot dead.
2. ‘The whole array, or the simultaneous discharge, of the artillery on one side of a ship of war’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.).
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 196. Feare wee broad-sides? No, let the Fiend giue fire.
a. 1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. II. 63. The great shippe shot at vs all her broad side.
1630. Wadsworth, Sp. Pilgr., ii. 8. The man of warre … gaue vs a broade side with his Ordnance.
1748. Anson, Voy., II. v. (ed. 4), 237. We … had a broad-side ready to pour into her.
fig. 1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 82. At this last broadside of mine, my father and all my brothers raised a cry of horror.
3. A sheet of paper printed on one side only, forming one large page; = BROADSHEET.
1575. Churchyard, Chippes (1817), 43. Richard Harvey … before 1563, had printed in a broadside, a decree … betwene Churchyarde and Camel.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 2. In one Sheet in 4to as also on a broad side of a Sheet.
1818. Scott, T. Landl., Ser. II. IV. 263. The Broadside containing the last dying speech and confession of M. Murdochson.
1861. Wright, Ess. Archæol., II. xxiii. 261. Many of the fabliaux and comic poems were issued as broadside ballads.
