Adjacent Words

Musket definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MUSK'ET, n. [L. musca, a fly.]
1. A species of fire-arms used in war, and fired by means of a lighted match. This manner of firing was in use as late as the civil war in England. But the proper musket is no longer in use. The name, however, in common speech, is yet applied to fusees or fire-locks fired by a spring lock.
2. A male hawk of a small kind, the female of which is the sparrow hawk.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a muzzle-loading shoulder gun with a long barrel; formerly used by infantrymen

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle French mousquet, from Old Italian moschetto small artillery piece, sparrow hawk, from diminutive of mosca fly, from Latin musca — more at midge Date: circa 1587 a heavy large-caliber muzzle-loading usually smoothbore shoulder firearm; broadly a shoulder gun carried by infantry

Britannica Concise

Muzzle-loading shoulder firearm developed in 16th-cent. Spain. Designed as a larger version of the harquebus, muskets were fired with matchlocks until flintlocks were developed in the 17th cent.; flintlocks were replaced by percussion locks in the early 19th cent. Early muskets were often handled by two persons and fired from a portable rest. Typically 5.5 ft (1.7 m) long and weighing about 20 lbs (9 kg), they fired a ball about 175 yards (160 m) with little accuracy. Later types were smaller, lighter, and accurate enough to hit a person at 80-100 yards (75-90 m). The musket was replaced in the mid-19th cent. by the breech-loading rifle.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. hist. an infantryman's (esp. smooth-bored) light gun, often supported on the shoulder. Phrases and idioms: musket-shot 1 a shot fired from a musket. 2 the range of this shot. Etymology: F mousquet f. It. moschetto crossbow bolt f. mosca fly

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Musket Mus"ket, n. [F. mousquet, It. moschetto, formerly, a kind of hawk; cf. OF. mousket, moschet, a kind of hawk falcon, F. mouchet, prop., a little fly (the hawk prob. being named from its size), fr. L. musca a fly. Cf. Mosquito.] [Sometimes written also musquet.] 1. (Zo["o]l.) The male of the sparrow hawk. 2. A species of firearm formerly carried by the infantry of an army. It was originally fired by means of a match, or matchlock, for which several mechanical appliances (including the flintlock, and finally the percussion lock) were successively substituted. This arm has been generally superseded by the rifle.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(muskets) A musket was an early type of gun with a long barrel, which was used before rifles were invented. N-COUNT

Moby Thesaurus

automatic, blowgun, blowpipe, firearm, flamethrower, gat, gun, handgun, heater, peashooter, piece, pistol, repeater, revolver, rifle, rod, sawed-off shotgun, shooting iron, shotgun, six-gun, six-shooter