[f. CANNON sb. + -ADE: cf. It. cannonata, Sp. cañonada (Minsheu).] A continued discharge of cannon; an attack with cannon.
1655. Flecknoe, Ten Years Trav., 11–2. Your young Gallants of the time … talk of nothing but Rampards and Parapats, Musquetads … and Canonads.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., III. VIII. 96. A furious canonade.
1776. W. Heath, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), I. 333. We could not reduce the fort by cannonade.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. V. vi. 299. Twelve hours of raging cannonade.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. Ind., II. 113. A cannonade was kept up on both sides.
fig. 1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 167. A cannonade, more or less sharp, is constantly kept up against the coast.
b. humorously: at billiards.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, xii. Where the echoing balls denoted the sweeping hazard or the effective cannonade.
