ABSP - Firearms

Firearms

Words

airgun	a gun that discharges missiles by means of compressed air.
amusette	a light field cannon, or stocked gun mounted on a swivel.
antitank	intended to counter tanks.
	an early type of portable firearm; spec. one supported on a tripod by a hook or on a forked rest.
artillery	offensive weapons of war esp. nowadays heavy guns.
arty	artillery.
backsight	the sight of a rifle nearer the stock.
ballistic	relating to projectiles.
ballistics	the science of the motion of projectiles; esp. that part of the subject connected with firearms.
bandook bundook	(Indian army slang) a rifle, a shotgun.
barker	a pistol.
basilisk	a brass cannon throwing a shot of about 200 lb.
bazooka	a portable tubular anti-tank rocket launcher.
beebee	a pellet e.g. for an air-gun.
birdshot	small shot suitable for shooting birds.
blunderbuss	an old-fashioned gun. [Du. donder, thunder, + bus, tube, gun; changed by association with blunder].
bombard	an early cannon for throwing stones; (verb) to attack with artillery.
broadside	all the guns on one side of a ship of war; their simultaneous discharge; (verb) to deliver a broadside.
buckshot	a large kind of shot, used in shooting deer.
bullet	a projectile, now esp. a round or conical one fired from any kind of small arm; (verb) in printing, to mark with a bullet-point > BULLETED, BULLETING.
bundook	see BANDOOK.
buttstock	the stock of a firearm in the rear of the breech mechanism.
caliber calibre	the diameter of a bullet or shell; the diameter of the bore of a gun or tube.
calibered calibred	having a given CALIBER.
caliver	an early form of hand gun, a variety of the ARQUEBUS.
canister	a type of shot. See GRAPESHOT.
cannon	a large gun mounted on wheels; a rapid-firing large-calibre gun fitted to an aircraft, ship or helicopter gunship; (verb) to collide with, strike on the rebound.
cannonade	an attack with heavy artillery; (verb) to attack with heavy artillery.
cannonball	a ball to be shot from a cannon.
cannonry	cannon, collectively; artillery.
carabin carabine carbine	a rifle with a relatively short barrel.
carronade	a short and light maritime cannon of large bore, typically mounted on slides rather than wheels.
cartridge	a case containing the charge for a gun (blank cartridge with powder only; ball cartridge with a bullet as well).
cascabel cascable	the part behind the base-ring of a cannon.
chainshot	two half or whole cannon-balls joined by a chain, for damaging ships' rigging etc.
chassepot	a kind of breechloading, center-fire rifle, or improved needle gun.
chokebore	a gun that narrows toward muzzle.
coehorn cohorn	a small mortar for throwing grenades. [f. Menno, Baron van Coehoorn (1641—1704), Dutch soldier and military engineer]. Also COEHORN.
crossfire	the crossing of lines of fire from two or more points.
crosshair	a fine wire at the focus of an optical instrument, crossing the field of view, to aid in positioning or measuring.
culverin	a lightweight, portable, long-barrelled cannon.
deringer derringer	a small single-shot or multi-barrelled (rarely more than two) pocket pistol.
dogbolt	the bolt of the cap-square over the trunnion of a cannon.
doppie	a cartridge-case. [Dutch dop, shell, case].
drumfire	massed artillery fire with a rolling sound.
dumdum	a soft-nosed expanding bullet.
enfilade	a number of things arranged as if threaded on a string; (verb) to discharge or be in a position to discharge firearms along the whole length of a line.
enginery	the act or art of managing engines, or artillery.
escopette	a kind of firearm; a carbine.
falconet	one of the smaller cannon used in the 15th century and later.
fieldpiece	a cannon mounted on wheels, for the use of a marching army; a piece of field artillery; -- called also field gun.
fieldstrip	to take apart a weapon for routine cleaning etc.
fireable	capable of being fired.
firearm	a weapon discharged by explosion.
firearmed	carrying a firearm.
firelock	an old form of gunlock, as the flintlock, which ignites the priming by a spark.
firepower	the amount of ammunition that can be fired with effect in a given time; the total offensive power or materials of a fighting force or any one of its machines or units.
flak	anti-aircraft fire; strong criticism; hostile reaction. [An acronym of German Fliegerabwehrkanone (anti-aircraft gun), from Flieger (aircraft, literally flyer) or Flug (flight) + Abwehr (defense) + Kanone (gun).]
flintlock	an old-fashioned gun with spark provided by a hammer striking a flint.
fusil fuzil	a type of musket.
fusillade	a simultaneous or successive discharge of firearms.
fuzil	see FUSIL.
gat	a gun.
gatling	as in gatling gun, a kind of machine-gun.
gingal jingal gingall jingall	a large Chinese or Indian swivel-musket. [Hindi janjal].
grapeshot	clustered iron shot that scatters when fired. The individual projectiles were about the size of a grape. An intermediate size of shot (usually called CANISTER) was also used. Grape shot weighed about an ounce; the shot in a canister were 4-8 ounces each. Grape was an anti-personnel weapon; canister was aimed at equipment, such as ship's boats.
gun	a weapon containing a tube from which projectiles are discharged, usu. by explosion; (verb) to shoot.
gunfight	a fight involving two or more people with guns, esp. formerly in the old American West; (verb) to engage in a gunfight > GUNFOUGHT.
gunfire	the firing of guns.
gunflint	a sharpened flint for the lock of a gun, to ignite the charge; supplanted by percussion caps.
gunless	without a gun.
gunlock	the lock of a gun, for producing the discharge.
gunnage	the number of guns carried on a warship. This total usually didn't include the CARRONADES on the quarter-deck.
gunnery	that branch of military science which deals with projectiles and ordnance.
gunpaper	a type of explosive paper.
gunplay	the use of guns, esp. in a fight.
gunshot	the act of firing a gun; a shot.
gunsight	a device helping the user of a gun to aim at a target.
gunslinging	the act of wearing a gun.
gunstick	a stick to ram down the charge of a musket, etc.; a rammer or ramrod.
gunstock	the stock or wood to which the barrel of a hand gun is fastened.
hackbut	a harquebus; a matchlock gun invented in the 15th century.
hagbut	a kind of HARQUEBUS.
hailshot	small shot which scatters like hailstones.
handgun	a gun that can be held and fired in one hand.
harquebus	see ARQUEBUS.
harquebuse	see ARQUEBUS.
harquebuss	see ARQUEBUS.
howitzer	a short relatively light gun for the high-angle firing of shells at a low velocity. [Du. houwitser f. Ger. Haubitze].
jezail	a long heavy Afghan musket.
jingal	see GINGAL.
jingall	see GINGAL.
kalashnikov	any weapon designed by Antonin Kalashnikov. The most famous example is the AK-47, a type of sub-machine gun.
langrage langrel langridge	a shot consisting of CANISTER containing irregular pieces of iron, formerly used to damage sails and rigging.
linstock lintstock	a pointed forked staff, shod with iron at the foot, to hold a lighted match for firing cannon.
matchlock	an early form of gun.
mitraille	shot or bits of iron used sometimes in loading cannon.
mitrailleur	a machine-gunner.
mitrailleuse	a machine-gun.
mortar	a short piece of artillery for throwing a heavy shell; (verb) to join or plaster with mortar.
multibarreled	of a gun, having many barrels.
musket	a long-barrelled muzzle-loading shoulder gun used between the 16th and 18th centuries by infantry soldiers.
musketoon	a short musket.
musketry	muskets collectively.
musquetoon	a short musket; a soldier armed with one.
oerlikon	an anti-aircraft cannon. [From Oerlikon, near Zurich].
ordnance	military stores or supplies; missiles discharged in war; artillery.
paderero paterero pederero pedrero	a term formerly applied to a short piece of chambered ordnance. Pl. in each case is —OS or -OES.
perrier	a short mortar used formerly for throwing stone shot.
petronel	a sort of hand cannon, or portable firearm, used in France in the 15th century.
pistol	a small handgun, held in one hand when fired; (verb) to shoot with a pistol > PISTOLED/PISTOLLED.
pistolet	a small pistol.
popgun	a tube for shooting pellets by compressed air; a contemptible gun.
potgun	a pot-shaped cannon; a mortar.
potshot	a random shot, a snapshot.
rafale	a burst of artillery in quick rounds. [Fr. rafale, squall].
ramrod	A rod for ramming down a charge into, or for cleaning, a gun-barrel; (verb) to push or drive with great force > RAMRODDED.
recoilless	without recoil (of a gun).
reloader	a device for reloading e.g. a gun.
revolver	a pistol with a rotating magazine.
ricochet	the action of a projectile, esp. a bullet or shell, in rebounding at an angle off a surface or surfaces after being fired.
rifle	a firearm with a spirally grooved barrel; (verb) to groove spirally.
rimfire	a rimmed or flanged cartridge with the priming mixture located inside the rim of the case.
roscoe	a gun.
sabot	an attachment to guide a projectile through the bore of a firearm.
salvo	to discharge firearms simultaneously; (noun) a simultaneous discharge of firearms. Pl. SALVOS or SALVOES.
scattergun	a SHOTGUN.
scattershot	random, indiscriminate, wide-ranging, as is shot from a gun. No —S.
shell	an explosive projectile shot from a cannon, large gun, etc.
shellfire	the firing of shells.
shotgun	a smooth-bore gun for firing shot at relatively short range; (verb) to shoot with a shotgun.
sidearm	a weapon esp. a gun worn at the side or in a belt.
smoothbore smoothbored	having a bore of perfectly smooth surface; -- distinguished from rifled.
speargun	a spearfishing gun.
spiker	a device for spiking a cannon.
stonk	an intense bombardment. N.B. this is a noun: there is an adjective STONKING, meaning very large, but no STONKED*.
strafe straff	to rake with machine-gun fire from low-flying aeroplanes.
strafer	one who STRAFES.
subcaliber subcalibre	of a calibre less than the firearm or barrel used to fire it. This is accomplished by surrounding the bullet by a SABOT.
supergun	a very large gun.
tampion tompion	a protective plug placed in the mouth of a gun or cannon.
taser	a gunlike device which fires electrified darts; (verb) to immobilize with a TASER.
tenpounder	a ten-pound gun.
tipstock	a part of a gun.
touchhole	the vent of a cannon or other firearm, by which fire is communicated to the powder of the charge.
tracer	a kind of ammunition.
volley	the discharge of many weapons (esp. small arms) at once; (verb) to deliver a volley.
whizbang whizzbang	a light shell of high velocity which is heard arriving before the gun's report; a firework resembling this.
windage	the deflection of a projectile by the wind; the allowance made for this in aiming the gun.
windgun	an air-gun.
zamboorak zomboruk zumbooruck zumbooruk	a small swivel-gun, esp. one mounted on the back of a camel.

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