Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for strafe. Search instead for strafes.
Synonyms

strafe

American  
[streyf, strahf] / streɪf, strɑf /

verb (used with object)

strafed, strafing

  1. to attack (ground troops or installations) by airplanes with machine-gun fire.

  2. Slang. to reprimand viciously.

verb (used without object)

strafed, strafing

  1. (of a player character in a video game) to move sideways while keeping a target in view, rather than turning the body to face the character’s destination in a regular forward movement.

noun

  1. a strafing attack.

strafe British  
/ strɑːf, streɪf /

verb

  1. to machine-gun (troops, etc) from the air

  2. slang to punish harshly

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. an act or instance of strafing

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • strafer noun
  • unstrafed adjective

Etymology

Origin of strafe

First recorded in 1910–15; from German strafen “to punish”

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.

The first, on Aug. 12, 2026, will start above Greenland, then strafe the west coast of Iceland and move along the Atlantic Ocean and over Spain.

From New York Times • Apr. 9, 2024

One researcher has been hiring planes to strafe the sky over the Amazon rain forest to collect the air coming off the trees, and what she is finding is cause for alarm.

From Scientific American • Sep. 22, 2023

The storms dip over the warm subtropics “and create a conveyor belt of of moisture to strafe the West Coast of the U.S,” Maue said.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 4, 2023

Team Alive’s greatest moment of jeopardy may have come early, as Jon Snow considered using Rhaegal to strafe a line of mounted White Walkers.

From Slate • Apr. 30, 2019

When he turned back to strafe it would be another matter.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

Definitions 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.