Both Uses of
volley
in
Bleak House
- …he had nothing to hide, but showed himself exactly as he was—incapable, as Richard said, of anything on a limited scale, and firing away with those blank great guns because he carried no small arms whatever—that really I could not help looking at him with equal pleasure as he sat at dinner, whether he smilingly conversed with Ada and me, or was led by Mr. Jarndyce into some great volley of superlatives, or threw up his head like a bloodhound and gave out that tremendous "Ha, ha, ha!"†
Chpt 7-9
- "By my soul," exclaimed Mr. Boythorn, suddenly firing another volley, "that fellow is, and his father was, and his grandfather was, the most stiff-necked, arrogant imbecile, pig-headed numskull, ever, by some inexplicable mistake of Nature, born in any station of life but a walking-stick's!†
Chpt 7-9 *
Definition:
-
(volley as in: a volley of...) a rapid or simultaneous discharge of bullets or other projectiles
or:
a rapid or simultaneous series of similar (and usually antagonistic) events -- such as protests or criticisms