Link Centre Dictionary

strafe

UK/ˈstɹeɪ̯f/ US/ˈstɹ̝̊ʷeɪf/ uncommon
verb (1) noun (1)

verb

1.

attack with machine guns or cannon fire from a low-flying plane

  • “civilians were strafed in an effort to force the country”

noun

1.

an attack of machine-gun fire or cannon fire from a low flying airplane

  • “the next morning they carried out a strafe of enemy airfields”

Origin

Borrowed from German strafe (“punish”) (a conjugated form of strafen), from phrases like Gott strafe England (“God punish England”) which the British saw during the First World War.

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Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.