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strafe

 - 3 dictionary results

strafe

  [streyf, strahf] verb, strafed, straf⋅ing, noun
Use strafe in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to attack (ground troops or installations) by airplanes with machine-gun fire.
2. Slang. to reprimand viciously.
–noun
3. a strafing attack.
Origin:
1910–15; < G strafen to punish

Related forms:
strafer, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To strafe
strafe   (strāf)   
tr.v.   strafed, straf·ing, strafes
To attack (ground troops, for example) with a machine gun or cannon from a low-flying aircraft.
n.  An attack of machine-gun or cannon fire from a low-flying aircraft.

[From German (Gott) strafe (England), (God) punish (England), a common World War I slogan, from strafen, to punish, from Middle High German strāfen, to contest, admonish.]
straf'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

strafe 
1915, "punish, attack," picked up by British soldiers from Ger. strafen "to punish" (from P.Gmc. *stræf-), in slogan Gott strafe England "May God punish England," current in Germany c.1914-16 at the start of World War I. The word used for many kinds of attack at first; meaning "shoot up ground positions from low-flying aircraft" emerged as the main sense 1942.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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