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Fusillade

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(pronounced fyoo-suh-lahd or fyoo-suh-layd)  noun

Definition

1. a discharge of firearms, either simultaneously or in quick succession. 2. something resembling a fusillade; a vigorous or rapid outpouring of something.
[From fusil, which is a light flintlock musket.]

Main Example

• According to the BBC, Donald Trump has sent out 940 tweets, averaging six a day, during his first six months in the White House. And since he is an early riser, his fusillade of tweets is usually unleashed between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.

Workplace Examples

• The mayor’s proposal to install red light cameras at heavily traveled intersections has stirred up quite a controversy. It has triggered a fusillade of letters to the editor and angry phone calls to his office. Someone even started a Facebook page against the proposal, which already has over 12,000 followers!
• Ray, you handled the Q&A extremely well, especially the fusillade of questions and comments that followed your three projected scenarios for next year. Everyone was really impressed.

Other Examples

• this author saying: “One of the defining traits of articulate people, as I keep hammering into my audiences at conferences and the like, is their effective use of synonyms when emphasizing a point. For instance, several of the highly effective communicators honored on the home page of my website--people like Gen. Michael Hayden, Ellen Futter, and David Axelrod--are known to utter a fusillade of synonyms when speaking passionately about something.” [For more “uncommon tips” on highly effective presentations, click here.]
• the fusillade of appeals filed in federal courts following the Trump administration’s imposition of a travel ban; a fusillade of objections by the defense attorney during the prosecution’s questioning of a witness; the fusillade of protests from the scientific community that followed then-NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe’s announcement that the Hubble Space Telescope will soon cease to function because it will no longer be serviced by the space shuttle
• in a late-night drive-by shooting, attackers firing a fusillade of bullets at rival gang members partying inside a house
• in 2012, during the eighth inning of the National League wild card playoff game between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals, incensed Braves fans hurling a fusillade of bottles and cans onto the field after one of the worst calls in baseball history that robbed them of possible victory
• unlike anything in the U.S. government, the British prime minister often having to contend with a fusillade of scathing comments from the opposition in Parliament

© 2018 V.J. Singal
No part of this may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author.

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