[a. Fr. enfilade, f. enfiler to thread on a string, hence to pierce or traverse from end to end, f. en- (see EN- pref.1) + fil thread.]
† 1. A suite of apartments, whose doorways are placed opposite to each other. Hence in phrase, In enfilade. Also applied to a long ‘vista,’ as between rows of trees, etc. Obs.
1705–30. S. Gale, in Nichols, Bibl. Topogr. Brit., III. 41. Rooms which … are placed in enfilade.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Garden, Groves form’d of Rows of Fruit-trees and Forest-trees … make … very agreeable Enfilades.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), IV. 265. An enfilade of correspondent gates.
1779. Swinburne, Trav. Spain, xxxviii. The trees have swelled out beyond the line traced for them, and destroyed the enfilade, by advancing into the walks, or retiring from them.
1805. Repton, Landscape Gard. (ed. 2), 105. A magnificent enfilade through a long line of principal apartments.
2. Mil. † a. (See quot.) Obs.
1706. Phillips, Enfilade (in Military Affairs) is the Situation of a Post, so that it can discover and scour all the length of a straight line.
1715. in Kersey.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
b. A ‘fire’ from artillery or musketry that sweeps a line of works or men from one end to the other. Also attrib. in enfilade fire.
1796–7. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 175. Its [the echelon’s] prolongation shall not be exposed to an enfilade.
1803. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., II. 286. You would have iron guns instead of brass for your enfilade.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1877), IV. xii. 255. Threatening … his batteries with an enfilade fire.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., VI. liv. 425. The space within the works … was exposed to enfilade.
