Word Meanings - BALLISTA - Book Publishers vocabulary database

An ancient military engine, in the form of a crossbow, used for hurling large missiles.

Related words: (words related to BALLISTA)

• ENGINER
  A contriver; an inventor; a contriver of engines. Shak.
• ENGINERY
  1. The act or art of managing engines, or artillery. Milton. 2. Engines, in general; instruments of war. Training his devilish enginery. Milton. 3. Any device or contrivance; machinery; structure or arrangement. Shenstone.
• HURL
  To twist or turn. "Hurled or crooked feet." Fuller. (more info) 1. To send whirling or whizzing through the air; to throw with violence; to drive with great force; as, to hurl a stone or lance. And hurl'd them headlong to their fleet and main.
• HURLBONE
  A bone near the middle of the buttock of a horse. Crabb. (more info) 1. See Whirlbone.
• HURLING
  1. The act of throwing with force. 2. A kind of game at ball, formerly played. Hurling taketh its denomination from throwing the ball. Carew.
• HURLY
  Noise; confusion; uproar. That, with the hurly, death itself awakes. Shak.
• HURLWIND
  A whirlwind. Sandys.
• HURLY-BURLY
  Tumult; bustle; confusion. Shak. All places were filled with tumult and hurly-burly. Knolles.
• ENGINEMAN
  A man who manages, or waits on, an engine.
• LARGE-ACRED
  Possessing much land.
• HURLER
  One who hurls, or plays at hurling.
• CROSSBOWMAN
  One who shoots with a crossbow. See Arbalest.
• ENGINEER CORPS; CORPS OF ENGINEERS
  In the United States army, the Corps of Engineers, a corps of officers and enlisted men consisting of one band and three battalions of engineers commanded by a brigadier general, whose title is Chief of Engineers. It has charge of the construction
• HURLBAT
  See HOLLAND
• ANCIENTNESS
  The quality of being ancient; antiquity; existence from old times.
• ANCIENTLY
  1. In ancient times. 2. In an ancient manner.
• LARGE-HANDED
  Having large hands, Fig.: Taking, or giving, in large quantities; rapacious or bountiful.
• LARGE-HEARTED
  Having a large or generous heart or disposition; noble; liberal. -- Large"-heart`ed*ness, n.
• CROSSBOWER
  A crossbowman.
• ENGINE
  A compound machine by which any physical power is applied to produce a given physical effect. Engine driver, one who manages an engine; specifically, the engineer of a locomotive. -- Engine lathe. See under Lathe. -- Engine tool, a machine tool.
• AIR ENGINE
  An engine driven by heated or by compressed air. Knight.
• RADIANT ENGINE
  A semiradial engine. See Radial engine, above.
• ENLARGEMENT
  1. The act of increasing in size or bulk, real or apparent; the state of being increased; augmentation; further extension; expansion. 2. Expansion or extension, as of the powers of the mind; ennoblement, as of the feelings and character; as, an
• RADIAL ENGINE
  An engine, usually an internal-combustion engine of a certain type having several cylinders arranged radially like the spokes of a complete wheel. The semiradial engine has radiating cylinders on only one side of the crank shaft.
• SEMIRADIAL ENGINE
  See ABOVE
• FOOL-LARGESSE
  Foolish expenditure; waste. Chaucer.
• CHURL
  husband; akin to D. karel, kerel, G. kerl, Dan. & Sw. karl, Icel. karl, and to the E. proper name Charles , and perh. 1. A rustic; a countryman or laborer. "A peasant or churl." Spenser. Your rank is all reversed; let men of cloth Bow
• STEAM ENGINE
  An engine moved by steam. Note: In its most common forms its essential parts are a piston, a cylinder, and a valve gear. The piston works in the cylinder, to which steam is admitted by the action of the valve gear, and communicates motion to the