broadside

Etymology

broad +‎ side

Noun

broadside (plural broadsides)

1. (nautical) One side of a ship above the water line; all the guns on one side of a warship; their simultaneous firing.
2. (by extension) A forceful attack, be it written or spoken.
   • 1993, Peter Kolchin, American Slavery (Penguin History, paperback edition, 34)

     Although slaveholders managed - through a combination of political compromise and ideological broadside - to contain the threat of a major anti-slavery compaign by fellow Southerners, planters could never be totally sure of non-slaveholders' loyalty to the social order.

   • 2013, Luke Harding and Uki Goni, Argentina urges UK to hand back Falklands and 'end colonialism (in The Guardian, 3 January 2013)

     Fernández's diplomatic broadside follows the British government's decision last month to name a large frozen chunk of Antarctica after the Queen – a gesture viewed in Buenos Aires as provocative.

3. A large sheet of paper, printed on one side and folded.
4. The printed lyrics of a folk song or ballad; a broadsheet.

Adverb

broadside (not comparable)

1. Sideways; with the side turned to the direction of some object.

Verb

broadside (third-person singular simple present broadsides, present participle broadsiding, simple past and past participle broadsided)

1. (transitive) To collide with something sideways on

References

• broadside in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• broadside in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• sideboard