touchhole

American

[tuhch-hohl] / ˈtʌtʃˌhoʊl /

noun

the vent in the breech of an early firearm or cannon through which the charge was ignited.

touchhole British

/ ˈtʌtʃˌhəʊl /

noun

a hole in the breech of early cannon and firearms through which the charge was ignited

"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

Etymology

Origin of touchhole

First recorded in 1495–1505; touch + hole

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The first charge was twenty pounds of powder, not more than nineteen of them running out of the touchhole.

From Project Gutenberg

Carefully, deliberately, Pamela Russell lowered her candle to the cannon's touchhole.

From Project Gutenberg

As soon as I discovered my mistake, I hurried back to our own position, in all the greater haste, because the touchhole of my rifle had got stopped.

From Project Gutenberg

One of the men inserted a percussion fuse in the touchhole of the mortar.

From Project Gutenberg

We took possession of it, and the simple procedure of filing out a touchhole produced a finished firearm.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023