culverin
Americannoun
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medieval form of musket.
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a kind of heavy cannon used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
noun
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a long-range medium to heavy cannon used during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries
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a medieval musket
Etymology
Origin of culverin
1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French coulevrine < Latin colubrīna, feminine of colubrīnus colubrine
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.
Arundel died at the age of 27 after his leg was shattered, in May 1435, by a shot from a primitive cannon, or culverin, at Gerberoy, France.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026
This plan did not work; gunnery was so imprecise that no captain knew whether a given culverin would dismast his enemy, drop its ball a quarter-mile short, or explode and wreck his own ship.
From Time Magazine Archive
John's been off-loading my culverin and he should have the guns in place by now.
From Caribbee by Hoover, Thomas
While we've been talking, my lads down on the Defiance were off-loading culverin there at the Cayo de Carena.
From Caribbee by Hoover, Thomas
"Aye, just give me a minute to set the rest of these culverin."
From Caribbee by Hoover, Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
