English
enfilade
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˌɛnfəlˈeɪd/
  • (GA) IPA: /ˈɛnfəlˌeɪd/
Noun

enfilade (plural enfilades)

  1. A line or straight passage, or the position of that which lies in a straight line.
  2. Gunfire directed along the length of a target.
    • 1996, Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Englishman's Boy, New York: Anchor, Chapter 27, p. 266,
      In minutes they had gained the top, fell prone, and began to pour deadly repeater-fire into the enemy below while their compatriots raked the top of the coulee with an enfilade.
  3. (architecture) A series of doors that provide a vista when open.
Synonyms
  • flanking fire
  • raking fire
Verb

enfilade (enfilades, present participle enfilading; past and past participle enfiladed)

  1. (transitive) To rake (something) with gunfire.
    • 1765, John Wright, The Compleat History of the Late War, London: David Steel, Volume 1, Chapter 7, p. 202,
      A great quantity of artillery was placed upon the eminence, so as to batter and enfilade the left of their intrenchments.
    • 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 3, p. 72,
      As they scrambled up a narrow path they every where found holes dug to cover the defenders of the mountain, and sticks crossed for resting their guns, with which they enfiladed every angle, that from the steepness it was necessary to make in ascending.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To be directed toward (something) like enfilading gunfire.
    • 1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Chapter 24,
      Together they saw the market thicken, and in course of time thin away with the slow decline of the sun towards the upper end of town, its rays taking the street endways and enfilading the long thoroughfare from top to bottom.
    • 1921, Harold Hunter Armstrong, Zell, London: Jonathan Cape, Part 1, Chapter 1, p. 15,
      From her rocking chair in the parlour, Mrs. Zell’s scrutiny enfiladed the entire block.
  3. (architecture, transitive) To arrange (rooms or other structures) in a row.
    • 1920, Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, Book 1, Chapter 3,
      […] the house had been boldly planned with a ball-room, so that, instead of squeezing through a narrow passage to get to it (as at the Chiverses’) one marched solemnly down a vista of enfiladed drawing-rooms (the sea-green, the crimson and the bouton d’or), seeing from afar the many-candled lustres reflected in the polished parquetry […]
Synonyms

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