strafe

views updated May 09 2018

strafe / strāf/ • v. [tr.] attack repeatedly with bombs or machine-gun fire from low-flying aircraft: military aircraft strafed the village.• n. an attack from low-flying aircraft.ORIGIN: early 20th cent.: humorous adaptation of the German World War I catchphrase Gott strafe England ‘may God punish England.’

strafe

views updated May 21 2018

strafe attack repeatedly with bombs or machine-gun fire from low-flying aircraft; humorous adaptation of the German First World War catchphrase Gott strafe England ‘may God punish England’, coined by the German writer Alfred Funke (b. 1869).

strafe

views updated May 29 2018

strafe punish, damage, attack fiercely. XX. f. G. phr. Gott strafe England God chastise England, current in Germany c.1914.
Hence sb. fierce assault.