VOLLEY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does volley mean? 

• VOLLEY (noun)
  The noun VOLLEY has 2 senses:

1. rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms

2. a tennis return made by hitting the ball before it bounces

  Familiarity information: VOLLEY used as a noun is rare.

• VOLLEY (verb)
  The verb VOLLEY has 5 senses:

1. be dispersed in a volley

2. hit before it touches the ground

3. discharge in, or as if in, a volley

4. make a volley

5. utter rapidly

  Familiarity information: VOLLEY used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VOLLEY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

burst; fusillade; salvo; volley

Context example:

our fusillade from the left flank caught them by surprise

Hypernyms ("volley" is a kind of...):

fire; firing (the act of firing weapons or artillery at an enemy)

Derivation:

volley (discharge in, or as if in, a volley)

volley (be dispersed in a volley)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A tennis return made by hitting the ball before it bounces

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("volley" is a kind of...):

return (a tennis stroke that sends the ball back to the other player)

Antonym:

ground stroke (a tennis return made by hitting the ball after it has bounced once)

Derivation:

volley (make a volley)

volley (hit before it touches the ground)

• VOLLEY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they volley    ... he / she / it volleys   
Past simple: volleyed   
Past participle: volleyed   
-ing form: volleying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be dispersed in a volley

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

gun shots volleyed at the attackers

Hypernyms (to "volley" is one way to...):

disperse; dissipate; scatter; spread out (move away from each other)

Verb group:

volley (discharge in, or as if in, a volley)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

volley (rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hit before it touches the ground

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

volley the tennis ball

Hypernyms (to "volley" is one way to...):

hit (cause to move by striking)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

volley (a tennis return made by hitting the ball before it bounces)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Discharge in, or as if in, a volley

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

the attackers volleyed gunshots at the civilians

Hypernyms (to "volley" is one way to...):

discharge (pour forth or release)

Verb group:

volley (be dispersed in a volley)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

volley (rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make a volley

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "volley" is one way to...):

play (participate in games or sport)

Domain category:

court game (an athletic game played on a court)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

volley (a tennis return made by hitting the ball before it bounces)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Utter rapidly

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

volley a string of curses

Hypernyms (to "volley" is one way to...):

emit; let loose; let out; utter (express audibly; utter sounds (not necessarily words))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

The cannon-shot was followed after a considerable interval by a volley of small arms.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The old reprobate with the surplice burst into a volley of bad language.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There were six troopers and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of their saddles at the first volley.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then the gag swung to the side with an abrupt swiftness, the great sail boomed like a cannon, and the three rows of reef-points slatted against the canvas like a volley of rifles.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

That honest creature was in deep affliction, I remember, and must have become quite buttonless on the occasion; for a little volley of those explosives went off, when, after having made it up with my mother, she kneeled down by the elbow-chair, and made it up with me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When this shower of arrows was over, I fell a groaning with grief and pain; and then striving again to get loose, they discharged another volley larger than the first, and some of them attempted with spears to stick me in the sides; but by good luck I had on a buff jerkin, which they could not pierce.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

By the side of the column walked a huge red-headed bowman, with his hands thrown out in argument and expostulation, while close at his heels followed a little wrinkled woman who poured forth a shrill volley of abuse, varied by an occasional thwack from her stick, given with all the force of her body, though she might have been beating one of the forest trees for all the effect that she seemed likely to produce.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The four shots came in rather a scattering volley, but they did the business: one of the enemy actually fell, and the rest, without hesitation, turned and plunged into the trees.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Johansen, who had caught the contagion of Wolf Larsen’s masterfulness, burst out with a volley of abuse and curses.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The report had scarcely died away ere it was repeated and repeated from without in a scattering volley, shot behind shot, like a string of geese, from every side of the enclosure.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)