Definition of "strafe" []

• To attack (ground troops, for example) with a machine gun or cannon from a low-flying aircraft. (verb-transitive)
• An attack of machine-gun or cannon fire from a low-flying aircraft. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One was shot in the leg and another bayoneted through the hip, and all were sent back to camp, where they were awarded six weeks in the punishment camp, known as the strafe barracks."
• "Some days we would "strafe" him with trench mortars; on others we would give him a touch of our artillery."
• "I glanced up at the pollard willow over head, against which I had been leaning to steady my field glasses as I watched our artillery "strafe" the Germans who were attacking the Ghurkas."