broadside

plural broadsides

1. nauticalOne side of a ship above the waterline.
2. All the guns on one side of a warship.
3. The simultaneous firing of these guns.

   Broadside! What fools to face our guns!

   2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, spoken by Rtas 'Vadum (Robert Davi), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: The Ark

4. broadlyA forceful attack, whether written or spoken.

   Fernández's diplomatic broadside follows the British government's decision last month to name a large frozen chunk of Antarctica after the Queen – a gesture viewed in Buenos Aires as provocative.

   2013 January 3, Luke Harding, Uki Goni, The Guardian

   2 more examples

   Although slaveholders managed - through a combination of political compromise and ideological broadside - to contain the threat of a major anti-slavery compaign by fellow Southerners, planters could never be totally sure of non-slaveholders' loyalty to the social order.

   1993, Peter Kolchin, American Slavery (Penguin History, paperback edition, 34)

   He delivered a broadside to the RMT leadership, saying: "This response to a significantly enhanced offer exposes their true priority - using the British public and NR workers as pawns in a fight with the Government.

   2022 December 14, Mel Holley, “Network News: Strikes go on as RMT rejects RDG's "detrimental" offer”, in RAIL, number 972, page 9

5. A large sheet of paper, printed on one side and folded.
6. The printed lyrics of a folk song or ballad; a broadsheet.

1. not comparableSideways; with the side turned to the direction of some object.

   1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure They were going some 60-80 mph [on a motorcycle] down a 30 mph street, hit a car broadside & Pat pushed against Bert, who was crushed into the side of the car.

   1 more example

   [...] the slight fluctuations [in speed] were due to a strong side-wind, which caught the train broadside along exposed stretches of the line.

   1964 June, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, page 388

present singular third person broadsides · participle present broadsiding · participle past broadsided · past broadsided

1. transitiveTo collide with something side-on.