Word.ws English Dictionary

bumbard

bumbard is the obsolete form of bombard.

Meaning of bombard

Noun

bombard (plural bombards)

  1. A medieval primitive cannon, used chiefly in sieges for throwing heavy stone balls.
    • They planted in divers places twelve great bombards, wherewith they threw huge stones into the air, which, falling down into the city, might break down the houses.1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC
  2. (obsolete) A bassoon-like medieval musical instrument.
  3. (obsolete) A large liquor container made of leather, in the form of a jug or a bottle.
    • […] yond same black cloud, yond huge one, / looks like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  4. (poetic, rare) A bombardment.
    • With mines and parallels contracts the space;
      Then bids the battering floats his labors crown
      And pour their bombard on the shuddering town1807, Joel Barlow, The Columbiad
  5. A bombardon.

See all 10 meanings of bombard

Forms of bumbard

pluralbumbards

Questions about bumbard

What is bumbard the obsolete form of?
Bumbard is the obsolete form of bombard.

Words near bumbard in the dictionary

  1. bumbalo
  2. Bumbalong
  3. Bumbalough
  4. Bumbaloughs
  5. Bumbanian
  6. bumbard
  7. bumbards
  8. Bumbarger
  9. Bumbargers
  10. bumbarrel
  11. bumbarrels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bumbard (page history and authors); bombard (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bumbard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bumbard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.