air raidn.
/ˈɛː reɪd/, U.S. /ˈɛr ˌreɪd/ An attack by aircraft, esp. one in which bombs are dropped on to a ground target.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > hostilities in the air > [noun] > air operation
mission1910
air raid1914
sortie1918
hickboo1919
air punch1940
air strike1942
trade1942
1914 Times 24 Sept. 8/5 (heading) British air raid into Germany.
1916 F. W. Lanchester Aircraft in Warfare 190 Air-raids on Great Britain by Zeppelin do not pay.
1939 New Yorker 9 Sept. 28/1 The calm and cultured tones of the BBC telling motorists what to do during air raids.
1965 New Statesman 30 Apr. 680/2 As a Vietnamese, I feel I have the right to express my resentment at the US air raids on Vietnam.
a1978 S. T. Warner One Thing leading to Another (1985) 145 I turned the conversation to air raids, and Mrs Moor was well away on an account of the flying bomb that wrecked the fish shop.
2005 Daily Record (Nexis) 1 Nov. 8 The air raid was aimed at al-Qaeda ‘safe houses’ near the Syrian border.
Compounds
C1.
air raid alarm n.
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1916 Times 28 Feb. 5/2 (heading) Test air-raid alarm.
1917 N.Y. Times (Mid-week Pictorial) Nov. (caption) London policemen hurrying through the metropolis with an air raid alarm.
1940 Times Weekly 7 Aug. 18 This was the first time that his Majesty had had the experience of an air-raid alarm sounding while carrying out a tour of inspection.
2006 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 20 June a6 An air-raid alarm went off Monday just before the Israeli president..visited the town of Sderot, hard-hit by the missiles fired by Palestinian militants.
air raid shelter n.
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society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > shelter or screen > [noun] > air-raid shelter
police box1855
air raid shelter1917
shelter1918
surface shelter1922
Anderson shelter1939
dugout1940
Morrison shelter1941
tube shelter1942
1917 Times 22 Sept. 3/4 (heading) Air-raid shelters... The managers of premises affording shelter..are invited..to exhibit a placard with the inscription ‘Air Raid—Shelter’.
1940 ‘E. M. Delafield’ Diary 22 Sept. in Provinc. Lady in Wartime 47 There is an air-raid shelter within two minutes' walk, and it will accommodate a hundred and fifty people.
1992 S. Holloway Courage High! xix. 163/2 Corrugated metal sheets [were] issued to all Londoners for use as air raid shelters.
air raid siren n.
ΚΠ
1918 Times 25 Mar. 8/2 The wailing of the air-raid siren told the Parisians that they had better go to their cellars.
1944 C. Beaton Diary in Self Portrait with Friends (1979) xiv. 130 The air-raid siren sounded, the sky vibrated with the roar of aircraft, but the enemy machines were flying too high to be seen.
2003 S. Mawer Fall (2004) xvi. 239 In this new, fallen world the choughs were starlings and the doves were pigeons and the soughing of the wind was the wail of the air-raid siren.
C2.
air raid precautions n. measures taken to limit the risk of air raids or the damage they might cause; spec. (with capital initials; commonly referred to simply as A.R.P.) a division of the British Home Office created in 1924 to protect civilians from the danger of air raids (also in singular in same sense).
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1915 Times 24 June 5/4 (heading) Air-raid precautions. Use And Abuse Of The Fire Alarm.
1937 Lancet 2 Oct. 812/2 A.R.P. These sinister initials are being made more and more familiar by a spate of books on air-raid precautions.
1957 F. M. G. Willson Organization Brit. Central Govt. VII. iv. 156 In 1935 an Air Raid Precautions Department was set up in the Home Office.
2006 Essex Chron. (Nexis) 6 Apr. 1 Charles worked in the air raid precaution unit during World War II.
air raid warden n. a person responsible for patrolling an area deemed to be at risk from air raids, enforcing blackout regulations, and dealing with fires and injuries caused by bombs.
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society > armed hostility > warrior > others concerned with military affairs > [noun] > air-raid warden, fire-watcher, etc.
fire-watcher1830
street warden1835
air warden1933
air raid warden1936
warden1936
paraspotter1940
roof-spotter1940
roof-watcher1940
1936 Times 11 July 16/4 (heading) An organization of ‘air raid wardens’ to give immediate information and to help in dealing with fires caused by incendiary bombs.
1940 T. H. Harrisson & C. H. Madge War begins at Home viii. 205 Air-Raid Wardens..could knock on your door and tell you that your lights must be properly masked or else.
1991 M. Nicholson Martha Jane & Me (1992) xix. 155 ‘Put that light out,’ was said with great relish by the people who volunteered to join the ARP as air-raid wardens.
air raid warning n. a public warning about impending air raids, usually given by means of a siren.The earliest air raid warnings, encouraging public preparedness, were issued as written announcements.
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1915 Times 13 Sept. 3/3 (heading) The British Fire Prevention Committee announce that their Air Raid ‘Warning’ as to the nature of the bombs and how to deal with the fires arising from them, is being reissued in the form of a small poster.
1917 Flying 1 Aug. 18/2 The Home Secretary stated..that air-raid warnings would be given by signal rockets.
1941 J. R. R. Tolkien Let. 12 Jan. (1995) 47 Air raid warnings are frequent here, but (so far) remain just warnings.
2006 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 11 Aug. a8 His comments were interrupted by an air-raid warning, one of dozens that sound every day.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1914