VOLLEY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Volley

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/vˈɑli/ Listen

noun

Volley n. (pl. volleys)

1.

A flight of missiles, as arrows, bullets, or the like; the simultaneous discharge of a number of small arms. "Fiery darts in flaming volleys flew." "Each volley tells that thousands cease to breathe."

2.

A burst or emission of many things at once; as, a volley of words. "This volley of oaths." "Rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks."

3.

(a)

(Tennis) A return of the ball before it touches the ground.

(b)

(Cricket) A sending of the ball full to the top of the wicket.

Half volley.

(a)

(Tennis) A return of the ball immediately after is has touched the ground.

(b)

(Cricket) A sending of the ball so that after touching the ground it flies towards the top of the wicket.

On the volley, at random. (Obs.) "What we spake on the volley begins work."

Volley gun, a gun with several barrels for firing a number of shots simultaneously; a kind of mitrailleuse.

verb

Volley v. t. (past & past part. volleyed; pres. part. volleying) To discharge with, or as with, a volley.

Volley v. i.

1.

To be thrown out, or discharged, at once; to be discharged in a volley, or as if in a volley; to make a volley or volleys.

2.

(a)

(Tennis) To return the ball before it touches the ground.

(b)

(Cricket) To send the ball full to the top of the wicket.

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Etymology of 'Volley'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Volley" Quotes from Famous Books

... Little Windermere, because they thought it was so like "our own English lake of that name. To do royal honours to the king of this charming land, I ordered my men," says Speke, "to put down their loads and fire a volley." ...

— A Book of Discovery - The History of the World's Exploration, From the Earliest - Times to the Finding of the South Pole • Margaret Bertha (M. B.) Synge

... of England and England's queen!" At the word a hundred horsemen, Sidney in the midst, with lance in hand and curtel-axe at saddle-bow, spurred to the charge. The enemy's cavalry broke, but the musketeers in the rear fired a deadly volley, under cover of which it formed anew. A second charge re-broke it. In the onset Sidney's horse was killed, but he remounted and rode forward. Lord Willoughby, after unhorsing and capturing the Albanian leader, lost his own horse. Attacked ...

— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb

... one of the rooms of his palace, sank in despair on the floor; he heard the mingling clash of arms, the roar of musketry, and the cries and groans of the combatants; ruin seemed no longer to threaten his kingdom, but to have pounced at once upon her prey. At every renewed volley which followed each pause in the firing, he expected to see his palace gates burst open, and himself, then indeed made a willing sacrifice, immolated to the vengeance of ...

— Thaddeus of Warsaw • Jane Porter

... yells of the enemy that his men were hard pressed; and, on crowning the ridge, saw the remnant of the legion huddled together in a half-armed mass, with the British chariots sweeping round them, each chariot-crew[86] as it came up springing down to deliver a destructive volley of missiles, then on board and away to replenish their magazine ...

— Early Britain--Roman Britain • Edward Conybeare

... to John's ears the first full crash of musketry fire in close deadly range. As company, regiment and brigade joined in volley after volley, it was like the sound of the continuous ripping of heavy canvas, magnified on the scale of a thousand. As the storm cloud swept over the smoke-choked field the rattle of musketry sounded as if an angry God rode somewhere ...

— The Southerner - A Romance of the Real Lincoln • Thomas Dixon

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