barrage
Americannoun
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barrages
plural
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Military. a heavy barrier of artillery fire to protect one's own advancing or retreating troops or to stop the advance of enemy troops.
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an overwhelming quantity or explosion, as of words, blows, or criticisms.
a barrage of questions.
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Civil Engineering. an artificial obstruction in a watercourse to increase the depth of the water, facilitate irrigation, etc.
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Mycology. an aversion response of sexually incompatible fungus cultures that are growing in proximity, revealed by a persistent growth gap between them.
verb (used with object)
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barrages,
present (3rd person singular)
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barraged,
past participle, past
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barraging
present participle
noun
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military the firing of artillery to saturate an area, either to protect against an attack or to support an advance
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an overwhelming and continuous delivery of something, as words, questions, or punches
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a usually gated construction, similar to a low dam, across a watercourse, esp one to increase the depth of water to assist navigation or irrigation
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fencing a heat or series of bouts in a competition
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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barragesimple
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barragessimple
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have barragedperfect
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has barragedperfect
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am barragingprogressive
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are barragingprogressive
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is barragingprogressive
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have been barragingperfect progressive
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has been barragingperfect progressive
Past
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barragedsimple
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had barragedperfect
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was barragingprogressive
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were barragingprogressive
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had been barragingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of barrage
1855–60; < French: blocking, barring off, barrier, equivalent to barr ( er ) to bar 1 + -age -age; artillery sense by ellipsis from French tir de barrage barrier fire
Explanation
A barrage is something that comes quickly and heavily — as an attack of bullets or artillery, or a fast spray of words. Sometimes in movies or news footage, the audience gets a glimpse from behind a mounted weapon and sees a heavy rain of bombs or bullets — called a barrage — going toward a target, sending as much POW! as possible to hit a wide area. Words become a barrage when spoken or written in uncontrollable anger or with overflowing emotion: "Her human-rights speech was a barrage of passion. It was hard to keep up with, but we felt the intensity of her cause."
Vocabulary lists containing barrage
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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Grade 10, List 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
One California law firm says yes, and has filed a barrage of lawsuits this year, targeting hotels in California and elsewhere over synthetic fragrances in common areas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
But for many employees, continually encountering a barrage of nascent, foreign and constantly changing tools has left them feeling overwhelmed and overworked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
But again, the initial consensus gives way to a barrage of new questions.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
Speaker Johnson, who on Monday faced a barrage of questions about AI from reporters in the halls of Congress, gave no sign he intended to move quickly this week.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
“Is it Ladyswell? Manchester barrage balloons at ten o’clock and Macclesfield at eight o’clock?”
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
Bass’ barrages got to Raman more than a few times, leading her to talk over the NBC and Telemundo moderators or even shush them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
And the effects run both ways: embankments and barrages built for India's protection have raised water levels and caused backwater flooding in Nepal's Terai, which is Nepal's long-standing concern,' says Sanyal.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
In vain, officials have urged locals to avoid the beaches -- exposed areas that offer no protection from Russian aerial barrages.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
In the U.A.E., barrages of drone and missile attacks from Iran unsettled the country’s finances.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
The Allies, after much trial and error, learned to use their tanks effectively in coordination with artillery barrages, infantry assaults, and—toward the end of the war—attacks by low-flying aircraft.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
At an annual meeting of financial-aid administrators hosted by the Education Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid earlier this year, people who work in college financial aid barraged government officials with questions about the change.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
Stars like Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and teenage wonder Macklin Celebrini repeatedly barraged the zone, to no avail.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 22, 2026
United were barraged by jeers from furious fans following the latest miserable result in another troubled season.
From Barron's ● Jan. 11, 2026
And if you’ve been searching for information about the fight, you’ve probably been barraged by online ads.
From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2024
As our confusion turned to shock and anger, we barraged the little man with questions.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
Users responded by barraging the platform with dozens more in its place, and the original post has now garnered over four million views.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
Aymann Ismail knew something was up when his Egyptian mom started barraging him with Piers Morgan clips.
From Slate ● Oct. 26, 2023
Those complaints in 2018 and 2020 about Jackson barraging students with social media and text messages, first reported by The Seattle Times, posed no obstacle to Jackson staying on the job.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 16, 2023
On Instagram, this means barraging people’s feeds with seemingly indiscriminate content, often accompanied by humorous or confessional commentary.
From New York Times ● Aug. 9, 2021
Seven and Thorn did as she said, surrounding the Nightbeast as best they could and barraging it with combat spells as fast as they could go.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
