guncotton

[ guhn-kot-n ]

noun
  1. a highly explosive nitrocellulose, made by breaking down clean cotton in a mixture of one part nitric acid and three parts sulfuric acid: used in making smokeless powder.

Origin of guncotton

1
First recorded in 1840–50; gun1 + cotton

Words Nearby guncotton

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use guncotton in a sentence

  • And suddenly guncotton produced his will-o-the-wisp trick, which completed the illusion.

    My Austrian Love | Maxime Provost
  • These are crumbling in places, and the Pioneers might destroy the bastion and breach the wall with a bag or two of guncotton.

    The Unveiling of Lhasa | Edmund Candler
  • The soldiers formed a square round the gun, charged it with guncotton, shouted 'Stand back!'

    With Steyn and De Wet | Philip Pienaar
  • For this purpose electric fuzes (for powder) or electric detonators (for guncotton or other high explosive) are employed.

  • Some very good bombs were made from jam-tins with a wad of guncotton, and filled up with all manner of missiles.

British Dictionary definitions for guncotton

guncotton

/ (ˈɡʌnˌkɒtən) /


noun
  1. cellulose nitrate containing a relatively large amount of nitrogen: used as an explosive

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012