different between fusillade vs enfilade

English

Etymology

From French fusillade, from fusiller (“shoot with a firearm”), from fusil (“rifle, gun”)

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?fju?s??le??d/
• Rhymes: -e?d

Noun

fusillade (plural fusillades)

1. the simultaneous firing of a number of firearms
2. (by extension) a rapid outburst
   • 1901, W. W. Jacobs, "The Monkey's Paw"

     But her husband was on his hands and knees groping wildly on the floor in search of the paw. If he could only find it before the thing outside got in. A perfect fusillade of knocks reverberated through the house, and he heard the scraping of a chair as his wife put it down in the passage against the door.

Translations

Verb

fusillade (third-person singular simple present fusillades, present participle fusillading, simple past and past participle fusilladed)

1. to fire, or attack with, a fusillade

French

Etymology

fusiller +? -ade

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fy.zi.jad/

Noun

fusillade f (plural fusillades)

1. shootout; shooting (of a firearm)
2. fusillade
3. (ice hockey) penalty

Derived terms

• tir de fusillade

Related terms

• fusil

Further reading

• “fusillade” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French enfilade.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??nf?l?e?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??nf?l?e?d/
• Rhymes: -e?d

Noun

enfilade (plural enfilades)

1. A line or straight passage, or the position of that which lies in a straight line.
2. Gunfire directed along the length of a target.
   • 1996, Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Englishman’s Boy, New York: Anchor, Chapter 27, p. 266,^[2]

     In minutes they had gained the top, fell prone, and began to pour deadly repeater-fire into the enemy below while their compatriots raked the top of the coulee with an enfilade.

3. (architecture) A series of doors that provide a vista when open.

Synonyms

• flanking fire
• raking fire

Verb

enfilade (third-person singular simple present enfilades, present participle enfilading, simple past and past participle enfiladed)

1. (transitive) To rake (something) with gunfire.
   • 1765, John Wright, The Compleat History of the Late War, London: David Steel, Volume 1, Chapter 7, p. 202,^[3]

     A great quantity of artillery was placed upon the eminence, so as to batter and enfilade the left of their intrenchments.

   • 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 3, p. 72,^[4]

     As they scrambled up a narrow path they every where found holes dug to cover the defenders of the mountain, and sticks crossed for resting their guns, with which they enfiladed every angle, that from the steepness it was necessary to make in ascending.
2. (figuratively, transitive) To be directed toward (something) like enfilading gunfire.
   • 1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Chapter 24,^[6]

     Together they saw the market thicken, and in course of time thin away with the slow decline of the sun towards the upper end of town, its rays taking the street endways and enfilading the long thoroughfare from top to bottom.

   • 1921, Henry G. Aikman, Zell, London: Jonathan Cape, Part 1, Chapter 1, p. 15,^[7]

     From her rocking chair in the parlour, Mrs. Zell’s scrutiny enfiladed the entire block.

3. (architecture, transitive) To arrange (rooms or other structures) in a row.
   • 1920, Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Book 1, Chapter 3,^[8]

     […] the house had been boldly planned with a ball-room, so that, instead of squeezing through a narrow passage to get to it (as at the Chiverses’) one marched solemnly down a vista of enfiladed drawing-rooms (the sea-green, the crimson and the bouton d’or), seeing from afar the many-candled lustres reflected in the polished parquetry […]

Synonyms

• flank

Anagrams

• alfenide

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.fi.lad/

Noun

enfilade f (plural enfilades)

1. row or series (of houses)
2. (architecture) enfilade
3. enfilade (gunfire)
4. (chess) skewer

Further reading

• “enfilade” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).