n.

1. The side of a ship above the water line.
2. 1. All the guns on one side of a warship.
   2. The simultaneous discharge of these guns.
3. A forceful verbal attack, as in a speech or editorial.
4. 1. A large sheet of paper usually printed on one side.
   2. Something, such as an advertisement or public notice, that is printed on a broadside. Also called broadsheet.
5. A broad, unbroken surface.

adv.

With the side turned to a given point or object; sideways: The wave hit the canoe broadside and sank it.

tr.v., -sid·ed, -sid·ing, -sides.

To strike or collide with full on the side: lost control of the truck and broadsided the car.

Tool often used in direct mail when the advertiser's message is lengthy or requires illustration and needs hard-hitting impact. Larger than a typical folder in a business envelope, a broadside can also be used as a store poster or window display. The advertising message is printed in bold type in one or more colors on one side of heavy stock paper, and by virtue of its size, delivers a forceful impression. In direct-mail advertising, the broadside is folded to a compact size, which can be mailed or delivered personally.

n. 1. a nearly simultaneous firing of all the guns from one side of a warship.

2. the set of guns that can fire on each side of a warship.

3. the side of a ship above the water between the bow and quarter.

broadside on also broadside to sideways on: the canoe was broadside to the waves.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

broadside, a large sheet of paper printed on one side only, often containing a song or ballad, and sold by wandering pedlars in Britain from the 16th century until the beginning of the 20th century, when they were superseded by mass‐circulation newspapers; they also appeared in the USA in the late 19th century. The broadside ballads were intended to be sung to a well‐known tune; often they related topical events, and some were adopted as folk songs. Broadsides are sometimes called broadsheets.

Flimsy sheets of paper, sold cheaply in the streets, at fairs, and wherever working people gathered. On them were printed songs, prose accounts of horrible crimes, scandals, newsworthy items, pictures, wonders, tales, religious tracts, parodies, political sqibs, the ‘last dying speeches of murderers’ sold at the foot of the gallows while the body was still hanging, or any other piece which the printers thought would sell. Given the fact that the printers copied freely from each other and tried to mirror the public's taste, many items included were traditional in their own right, such as the ‘Pack of Cards Spiritualized’, or the ‘Letter from Our Lord Jesus Christ’. From the late 18th to the late 19th centuries, the printers of broadsides were at the decidedly lower end of the trade and, indeed, many of the sheets were appallingly printed, but others gave good value for the cost of a penny or halfpenny, giving two or more songs, with woodcut illustrations (often having little if any connection with the song itself). A typical mid-19th-century sheet would be quarto size (about 10 in. × 8 in.) with two songs and two cuts, but many sellers chopped the sheets in half to make two ‘slips’, and others sold much bigger sheets which could hold as many as 50 songs—in very small print.

Much of the broadside trade was centred in London, and some printers such as James Catnach, John Pitts, and Henry Such had a national reputation, but there were also important regional centres in Newcastle, Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool, and most small towns had a printer who turned out broadsides as and when he or she could. Between them, they churned out hundreds of thousands of sheets.

In the earlier period, from the mid-15th to the late 17th centuries, most sheets were printed by better class printers, in the old gothic script, called ‘Blackletter’. In addition to general songs, those engaged in religious and political controversies often used the broadside form to carry on their public debates, and these sheets were much prized by collectors and examples are still preserved in major collections such as the Pepys, Roxburghe, and Bagford.

Devotees of the traditional Child ballad and many folk song scholars were particularly scathing about broadside ballads, but much of the evidence used in folk song research is perforce taken from printed examples. Appearance on a broadside is often the only way a song can be dated, and few song researchers have not used broadside texts to complete fragmentary versions they have collected, or to elucidate obscure or incoherent phrases. The exact relationship between traditional song and broadsides has never been quite determined. Certainly, very many of the songs collected from the people have appeared on broadsides at one time or another, and it is also known that many traditional singers learnt songs from print, and some even made collections of their own. Broadsides could be stored away in scrapbooks, passed around from hand to hand until they fell to pieces, or pasted on the wall: ‘I will now lead you to an honest ale-house, where we shall find a cleanly room, lavender in the window, and twenty ballads stuck about the walls’ (Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler (1653)). A purely oral folk song tradition has probably not existed in this country for centuries. Nevertheless, a minority of songs do not seem to have appeared widely in print and, as broadsides did not give tunes yet song collectors found versions of songs with similar tunes all over the country, an element of orality must have existed, and so we must assume that a flexible mix of print/oral traditions was the norm.

Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.

• Leslie Shepard, The Broadside Ballad (1962)
• Leslie Shepard, The History of Street Literature (1973)
• Claude M. Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and its Music (1966)

Broadsides were sheets of paper printed on one side only that colonial Americans used for poetical effusions, news items, and propaganda. Revolutionary partisans used them for political purposes, and patriot broadsides were often reprinted in newspapers. Later, reformers used broadsides in political, antislavery, and temperance campaigns. During the Civil War they were distributed as song sheets and parodies. They also have been used for memorials and obituaries, accounts of trials and executions, crude poetry, official proclamations, and posters. Newspaper carriers used them for New Year's offerings.

Bibliography

Berger, Carl. Broadsides and Bayonets. San Rafael, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1976.

Bradley, Patricia. Slavery, Propaganda, and the American Revolution. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998.

—Augustus H. Shearer/S. B.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - bredside
adv. - baglæns
v. tr. - skride baglæns

Nederlands (Dutch)
tirade, zijkant van schip boven waterlijn, afvuren van alle wapens aan een kant van schip

Français (French)
n. - (Naut) flanc, travers, (Naut) bordée, (fig) attaque cinglante, bordée d'injures ou d'invectives
adv. - par le travers
v. tr. - heurter par le travers

Deutsch (German)
n. - Breitseite, Tirade
adv. - (Seew.) breitseitig, (übertr.) alle zusammmen
v. - eine Breitseite abfeuern

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ομοβροντία, (μτφ.) φραστική επίθεση (κν. εξάψαλμος), (ναυτ.) πλευρά/μπάντα (πλοίου)

Italiano (Italian)
bordata

Português (Portuguese)
n. - ataque (m) violento a pessoa ou política, canhões (m pl) de um bordo do navio (Náut.)

Русский (Russian)
борт, брань, артиллерийский выстрел всех пушек с одной стороны

Español (Spanish)
n. - andanada, torrente de improperios, costado de un buque
adv. - a lo ancho
v. tr. - chocar de costado, atacar en grupo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - bredsida

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
舷侧, 较宽的一面, 侧面地, 撞侧面

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 舷側, 較寬的一面
adv. - 側面地
v. tr. - 撞側面

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 뱃전 , 일제 공격, 넓은 측면
adv. - 뱃전을 돌리고, 일제히
v. tr. - ~을 돌리다, ~을 퍼붓다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 舷側, 片舷斉射, 片舷の全大砲, 広告用印刷物, 広い側面
adv. - 側面を向けて, 側面に

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) هجوم ساحق (بالكلام أو الكتابه), اطلاق مدافع سفينه حربيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮דופן הספינה מעל למים, התקפה במלים, התקפה מוחצת, ירי של כל התותחים בצד אחד של ספינה, עלון‬
adv. - ‮ביחד (ירי תותחים)‬
v. tr. - ‮התנגש בצדו של (כלי רכב וכו')‬

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