VOLLEY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Volley

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/vˈɑli/ Listen

noun

Volley n. (pl. volleys)

1.

A flight of missiles, as arrows, bullets, or the like; the simultaneous discharge of a number of small arms. "Fiery darts in flaming volleys flew." "Each volley tells that thousands cease to breathe."

2.

A burst or emission of many things at once; as, a volley of words. "This volley of oaths." "Rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks."

3.

(a)

(Tennis) A return of the ball before it touches the ground.

(b)

(Cricket) A sending of the ball full to the top of the wicket.

Half volley.

(a)

(Tennis) A return of the ball immediately after is has touched the ground.

(b)

(Cricket) A sending of the ball so that after touching the ground it flies towards the top of the wicket.

On the volley, at random. (Obs.) "What we spake on the volley begins work."

Volley gun, a gun with several barrels for firing a number of shots simultaneously; a kind of mitrailleuse.

verb

Volley v. t. (past & past part. volleyed; pres. part. volleying) To discharge with, or as with, a volley.

Volley v. i.

1.

To be thrown out, or discharged, at once; to be discharged in a volley, or as if in a volley; to make a volley or volleys.

2.

(a)

(Tennis) To return the ball before it touches the ground.

(b)

(Cricket) To send the ball full to the top of the wicket.

See images of 'Volley'

Etymology of 'Volley'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Volley" Quotes from Famous Books

... with a shower of spears. Fortunately, on encountering the first lot of threatening blacks, I had prepared a shelter for myself on deck by means of the hatches reared up endwise against the stanchions, and so the spears fell harmlessly around me. Next, the natives sent a volley of boomerangs on board, but without any result. Some of these curious weapons hit the sails and fell impotently on the deck, whilst some returned to their throwers, who were standing on the rocks about fifty yards away, near the edge of the water. ...

— The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont - as told by Himself • Louis de Rougemont

... small number of poets that surrenders to the enemy by conceding either the poet's deliberate indulgence in sin, or his pitiable moral frailty. If one were tempted to believe that this defensive portrayal of the sinful poet is in any sense a major conception in English poetry, the volley of repudiative verse greeting every outcropping of the degenerate's self-exposure would offer a sufficient disproof. In the romantic movement, for instance, one finds only Byron (among persons of importance) to uphold the theory of the perverted artist, ...

— The Poet's Poet • Elizabeth Atkins

... of the bandits' first volley had been directed at Barney, for it was upon his head that the great price rested. They had missed him by a narrow margin, due, perhaps, to the fact that the mounts of the brigands had been prancing in alarm at the unexpected sight ...

— The Mad King • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... attempt, and once more leaped back in alarm, this time to be greeted with a peal of merry laughter, and a volley of shrill barks from Snip, who probably fancied Seth stood ...

— Aunt Hannah and Seth • James Otis

... dirt, declaring he was a poor man, with a sma' family, asking for 'mercy,' and imploring us, as 'gentlemen, for God's sake, t' let him a-be!' We couldn't stand this any longer, and set up a shout of laughter. Recognizing our boys' voices, he sprang to his feet and rattled out a volley of oaths; on which we cut through the hedge, and heard him shortly after swearing his way along the road ...

— Lives of the Engineers - The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson • Samuel Smiles

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