broadside
noun

- a strong written or spoken attack (on someone)

- the action of firing all the guns on one side of a navy ship at the same time

- a sizable sheet of paper printed on one side

The Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

"Broadside", technically "the side of a ship above the water, between the bow and the quarter", originates from the 1590s, derived from 'broad' (adjective) and 'side' (noun)" — thus "the artillery on one side of a ship all fired off at once".

The oldest-recorded sense in English "a sheet of paper printed on one side only" is from the 1570s.

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PROMINENT BROADSIDES

Famous verbal attacks often take the form of sharp criticisms, condemnations, or even outright insults that have been remembered due to the prominence of the individuals involved or the circumstances surrounding the comments. Here are some memorable instances:

- Truman Capote on Jack Kerouac: "That's not writing, that's typing."

- Gore Vidal once wrote a scathing review of a book by Norman Mailer. In retaliation, when they next met, Mailer head-butted him. Later, during a TV appearance together, Mailer told Vidal, "I would apologize if it hurts your feelings… of course, you have no feelings to hurt."

- Noël Coward on Edith Sitwell: "A great many people now reading and writing would be better employed keeping rabbits."

- Mae West: "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."

- Winston Churchill on Labour politician Clement Attlee: "An empty taxi arrived at 10 Downing Street, and when the door was opened, Attlee got out."

- Dorothy Parker on Katharine Hepburn's performance: "She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B."

- Dorothy Parker on a performance: "That woman speaks eighteen languages and can't say 'No' in any of them."

- Dorothy Parker and Clare Boothe Luce upon nearly running into each other at a doorway: Luce stepped aside and said, "Age before beauty." Parker walked through and replied, "Pearls before swine."

- Oscar Wilde on George Bernard Shaw: "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends."

- Mahatma Gandhi when asked what he thought of Western civilization: "I think it would be a good idea."

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SYNONYMS

barrage, bawl out, berating, blistering attack, BROADSIDE, chastisement, chewing out, chiding, condemnation, denouncement, denunciation, dis, disparagement, dress-down, dressing down, earful, evisceration, excoriation, flaying, harangue, hurling invective, indictment, j'accuse, lambasting, lecture, mauling, mouthful, negative feedback, onslaught, panning, put-down, rail, rant, rap over the knuckles, rebuke, recrimination, reprimand, reproach, reproof, roast, roasting, rubbishing, scourge, scolding, slapdown, talk-to, tell-off, telling off, thrashing, tirade, tongue-lashing, upbraiding, verbal attack (assault), vitriol, vituperation, volley, whack, word-lashing

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation, say something like:

“After months of silence, normally quiet people can unleash a BROADSIDE, expressing their frustrations all at once.”

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