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battle cruiser

noun
  1. a warship of maximum speed and firepower, but with lighter armor than a battleship.
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Origin of battle cruiser

First recorded in 1910–15
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for battle cruiser

Historical Examples of battle cruiser

  • The battle-cruiser is a hybrid and, as this war has proved, a most useful war-vessel.

    The British Navy Book

    Cyril Field

  • It remains to consider the function of the battle-cruiser in the line of battle.

    Naval Warfare

    James R. Thursfield

  • On the occasion of the Heligoland fight, one paper announced in large print that the British battle-cruiser Lion had been sunk.

    Wounded and a Prisoner of War

    Malcolm V. (Malcolm Vivian) Hay

  • The silk, somehow, seemed strangely out of place in the gun-turret of a battle-cruiser.

    Pincher Martin, O.D.

    H. Taprell Dorling

  • We were then closely engaged with three German ships—a battle-cruiser and two light cruisers.

British Dictionary definitions for battle cruiser

battle cruiser

noun
  1. a warship of battleship size but with lighter armour and fewer guns and capable of high speed
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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