rafale

Examples of rafale in a sentence

• By a rafale is meant all the shots of a battery fired with the same elevation, without any determined order, at the rate of more than one shot per gun.1903, Andrew Hero Jr., “Opening & Conduct of Fire”, in Antiaircraft Journal, volume 20, page 47:
• They kept up their solemn litany, with a minute's interval between each - no rafale which rumbles like a drum, but the steady persistence of artillery exactly ranged on a target.1916, John Buchan, Greenmantle:
• They were especially fierce to the south, where a rafale beat as I had never heard it before.1916, John Buchan, Greenmantle:

Forms of rafale

Origin of rafale

Borrowed from French rafale. In the military context the term may well be obsolete in English; it had been introduced into French military usage by General Hippolyte Langlois in the late nineteenth century, and adopted into English and American usage not long after, but the usage seems to have petered out in English by the end of World War I.

Questions about rafale

What does rafale mean?

Rafale means a short, intense burst of artillery fire from a number of weapons fired with the intention of overwhelming resistance or routing an attacking force.

How do you use rafale in a sentence?

By a rafale is meant all the shots of a battery fired with the same elevation, without any determined order, at the rate of more than one shot per gun.

What part of speech is rafale?

Rafale is a noun.

What is the plural of rafale?

The plural of rafale is rafales.