Word Meanings - GUN - Book Publishers vocabulary database

A piece of heavy ordnance; in a restricted sense, a cannon. 3. pl. (more info) A LL. gunna, W. gum; possibly fr. L. canna reed, tube; or abbreviated fr. OF. mangonnel, E. mangonel, a machine for hurling 1. A weapon which throws or propels

Additional info about word: GUN

A piece of heavy ordnance; in a restricted sense, a cannon. 3. pl. (more info) A LL. gunna, W. gum; possibly fr. L. canna reed, tube; or abbreviated fr. OF. mangonnel, E. mangonel, a machine for hurling 1. A weapon which throws or propels a missile to a distance; any firearm or instrument for throwing projectiles by the explosion of gunpowder, consisting of a tube or barrel closed at one end, in which the projectile is placed, with an explosive charge behind, which is ignited by various means. Muskets, rifles, carbines, and fowling pieces are smaller guns, for hand use, and are called small arms. Larger guns are called cannon, ordnance, fieldpieces, carronades, howitzers, etc. See these terms in the Vocabulary. As swift as a pellet out of a gunne When fire is in the powder runne. Chaucer. The word gun was in use in England for an engine to cast a thing from a man long before there was any gunpowder found out. Selden.

Related words: (words related to GUN)

• SENSE
  A faculty, possessed by animals, of perceiving external objects by means of impressions made upon certain organs (sensory or sense organs) of the body, or of perceiving changes in the condition of the body; as, the senses of sight, smell, hearing,
• GUNNAGE
  The number of guns carried by a ship of war.
• MACHINER
  One who or operates a machine; a machinist.
• 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.
• CANNON BONE
  See BONE
• RESTRICT
  Restricted.
• 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.
• WEAPONRY
  Weapons, collectively; as, an array of weaponry.
• PIECER
  1. One who pieces; a patcher. 2. A child employed in spinning mill to tie together broken threads.
• CANNONADE
  1. The act of discharging cannon and throwing ball, shell, etc., for the purpose of destroying an army, or battering a town, ship, or fort; -- usually, an attack of some continuance. A furious cannonade was kept up from the whole circle
• WHICHEVER; WHICHSOEVER
  Whether one or another; whether one or the other; which; that one which; as, whichever road you take, it will lead you to town.
• HURLY
  Noise; confusion; uproar. That, with the hurly, death itself awakes. Shak.
• PIECEMEALED
  Divided into pieces.
• HURLWIND
  A whirlwind. Sandys.
• ABBREVIATION
  One dash, or more, through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, or demi-semiquavers. Moore. (more info) 1. The act of shortening, or reducing. 2. The result of abbreviating; an abridgment. Tylor. 3. The form to
• HEAVY-HEADED
  Dull; stupid. "Gross heavy-headed fellows." Beau. & Fl.
• WEAPONLESS
  Having no weapon.
• PIECEMEAL
  1. In pieces; in parts or fragments. "On which it piecemeal brake." Chapman. The beasts will tear thee piecemeal. Tennyson. 2. Piece by piece; by little and little in succession. Piecemeal they win, this acre first, than that. Pope.
• ABBREVIATED
  Shortened; relatively short; abbreviate.
• GRAMME MACHINE
  A kind of dynamo-electric machine; -- so named from its French inventor, M. Gramme. Knight.
• INSENSE
  To make to understand; to instruct. Halliwell.
• BURRING MACHINE
  A machine for cleansing wool of burs, seeds, and other substances.
• SPARPIECE
  The collar beam of a roof; the spanpiece. Gwilt.
• DRIFTPIECE
  An upright or curved piece of timber connecting the plank sheer with the gunwale; also, a scroll terminating a rail.
• CODPIECE
  A part of male dress in front of the breeches, formerly made very conspicuous. Shak. Fosbroke.
• GLIDING MACHINE
  A construction consisting essentially of one or more aëroplanes for gliding in an inclined path from a height to the ground.
• 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