barrage balloon
noun
: a small captive balloon used to support wires or nets as protection against air attacks
Examples of barrage balloon in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Normandy’s Negroes, serving in mostly segregated units, worked under fire instead as stevedores and as antiaircraft men who ran up barrage balloons to frustrate enemy air strikes at the beaches.
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Olivia B. Waxman, Time, 5 June 2019
Those were barrage balloons, floating aloft and anchored by cables, so that enemy planes had to fly over them, making their bombing more difficult.
—Erik Lacitis, The Seattle Times, 2 June 2019
The barrage balloons are going up all along the Corniche.
—Andrew Liptak, The Verge, 31 Mar. 2018
There’s no combat action in Mr. Boorman’s film, only such apparitions as barrage balloons floating in the sky and a Luftwaffe pilot parachuting into a suburban garden.
—Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 15 Mar. 2018
Olivia B. Waxman, Time, 5 June 2019
Those were barrage balloons, floating aloft and anchored by cables, so that enemy planes had to fly over them, making their bombing more difficult.
—Erik Lacitis, The Seattle Times, 2 June 2019
The barrage balloons are going up all along the Corniche.
—Andrew Liptak, The Verge, 31 Mar. 2018
There’s no combat action in Mr. Boorman’s film, only such apparitions as barrage balloons floating in the sky and a Luftwaffe pilot parachuting into a suburban garden.
—Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 15 Mar. 2018
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'barrage balloon.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1918, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near barrage balloon
Cite this Entry
“Barrage balloon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/barrage%20balloon. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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