bombard phrase

See also: bombard-phrase

English

Alternative forms

• bombard-phrase

Noun

bombard phrase (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Inflated language; bombast.
   • 1857, Ben Jonson (author), William Gifford (editor), "Translations from the Latin Poets" in The Works of Ben Jonson, p. 853 (Google preview):

     . . . Their bombard-phrase, and foot and half-foot words . . .

   • 1881 Nov. 12, "Notes on Books: French Dramatists of the Nineteenth Century" in Notes and Queries, series 6, vol. 4, p. 400 (Google preview):

     To the inveterate Hugolater it is probable that his estimate of the author of Les Miserables as a dramatist will seem inadequate; but it is noteworthy that the poverty of Hugo's personages as actual characters, despite their "bombard phrase," receives striking confirmation from one of the greatest of modern French actors.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “bombard phrase”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)