arquebus
Americannoun
-
arquebuses
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of arquebus
First recorded in 1525–35; from Middle French harquebusche (with intrusive -r- ), from Middle Dutch hākebusse, equivalent to hāke “hook“ + busse “gun” (literally, “box”), from Late Latin buxis for Latin buxus “box tree, boxwood; flute made from boxwood”; see box 1
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.
See Examples For:
Unlike the arquebus shouldered by foot soldiers, the pistol was often viewed with suspicion and disapproval.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
The Spanish conquistadors who invaded Mexico, for example, put greater faith in crossbows and cold steel than the arquebus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
By the fifteenth century, the Janissary corps of the Ottoman Empire were using firearms like the arquebus, an early long gun, in battle.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
FOR all the centuries of refinement that separate a modern rifle from a Renaissance arquebus, the basic idea has not changed.
From Economist ● May 7, 2015
As the arquebus succeeded the bow and arrow, so the musket, a smooth and single-barrel muzzle-loader with a flint-lock and a wooden ramrod, succeeded the arquebus.
From Inventions in the Century by William Henry Doolittle
The Spaniard brought only 11 ships, some 450 men, 16 horses and a modest collection of cannons, crossbows and arquebuses, precursors to the musket.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
Armorers did a brisk business in swords, helmets and arquebuses, forerunners of the musket.
From Time Magazine Archive
It should be picketed with soldiers having arquebuses.
From Sea and Sardinia by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence
For the king there was a "gorgeous coach and seven beautiful horses, twelve arquebuses, six of whalebone and six variegated, and a vase of rock crystal filled with perfumes."
From Famous European Artists by Sarah K. Bolton
There were rusty steel morions, breast-plates, and buff leather coats, each complete suit containing a grisly skeleton; while scattered around were arquebuses, muskets, pikes, swords, and pistols.
From The Quest of the 'Golden Hope' A Seventeenth Century Story of Adventure by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
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.
