Obs. Also 6–7 tyre. [ad. F. tir in sense ‘shot, volley,’ verbal sb. from tirer to draw, to shoot (Roland, 11th c.) = Prov., Sp., Pg. tirar, It. tirare:—Common Romanic *tīrāre: see TIRE v.2] The simultaneous discharge of a battery of ordnance; a volley or broadside. Also transf. of thunder.
(Collective pl., esp. after numeral, tire.)
1575. Ld. Grey, in Comm. Serv. & Charges (Camden), 20. They guave us vij or viij sutche terryble tyres of batterie as tooke cleane awaye from us the top of owre vammure.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron. (1807), IV. 213. Before that two tires of the artillerie had gone off, they within offered to parlee.
1593. Peele, Ord. Garter, Wks. (Rtldg.), 586/1. Ordnance pealing in mine ears, As twenty thousand tire had play’d at sea.
1598. Florio, Salua … a volie or tire off ordinance.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xii. § 92. Discharging sundry tire and peales of Thunder.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 605. In posture to displode thir second tire Of Thunder.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., III. 317. The foe discharges every tire around.
