Definitions For Rafale

Noun

RAFALE (plural RAFALEs) (military) A short, intense burst of artillery fire from a number of weapons fired with the intention of overwhelming resistance or routing an attacking force.

Etymology

Borrowed from {{bor, en, fr, rafale}}. In the military context the term may well be obsolete in English; it had been been introduced into French military usage by General wikipedia:hippolyte langlois, hippolyte langlois in the late nineteenth century, and adopted into English and American usage not long after, but the usage seems to have petered out in English by the end of World War I.