battleship
[bat-l-ship]
- any of a class of warships that are the most heavily armored and are equipped with the most powerful armament.
- ship of the line.
Show More
Origin of battleship
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
battlewagonExamples from the Web for battleship
Contemporary Examples
Using skewers/tooth picks, attach monkey bread, Cinnabons, and churros to battleship.
Epic Meal Empire’s Meat Monstrosities: From the Bacon Spider to the CinnabattleshipHarley Morenstein
July 26, 2014
Sober and muted colors including shades of gray, one described in a local paper as ‘Battleship,’ were prevalent.
The leading-man roles followed in the back-to-back 2012 blockbusters John Carter and Battleship.
‘Lone Survivor’ Taylor Kitsch’s Journey From Homelessness to Hollywood StardomMarlow Stern
December 18, 2013
Additional film credits include The Rundown, The Kingdom, Hancock, Battleship, and the upcoming Cocaine Cowboys.
The Hero Summit 2013 SpeakersSeptember 10, 2013
As a member of the Royal Navy, he was in charge of operating the searchlights on a battleship called the Valiant.
A Very Unhappy 92nd Birthday for Prince Philip as He Recovers From Surgery in HospitalTom Sykes
June 10, 2013
Historical Examples
It was so huge and vast that even the crew of the battleship burst into a cheer.
The Cruise of the Dry DockT. S. Stribling
It was the solemn note of a battleship destroyed by its own magazines.
The Cruise of the Dry DockT. S. Stribling
A battleship should be at least twice as long as a torpedo-boat destroyer.
Boys' Book of Model BoatsRaymond Francis Yates
A view of the battleship as it will look in the water is shown in Fig. 31.
Boys' Book of Model BoatsRaymond Francis Yates
France had accepted the verdict; but now a second battleship was gone.
The DestroyerBurton Egbert Stevenson
battleship
- a heavily armoured warship of the largest type having many large-calibre guns
- (formerly) a warship of sufficient size and armament to take her place in the line of battle; ship of the line
Show More
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
Word Origin and History for battleship
n.
1794, shortened from line-of-battle ship (1705), one large enough to take part in a main attack (formerly one of 74-plus guns); from battle (n.) + ship (n.). Later in U.S. Navy in reference to a class of ships that carried guns of the largest size. The last was decommissioned in 2006. Battleship-gray as a color is attested from 1916. Fighter and bomber airplanes in World War I newspaper articles were sometimes called battleplanes, but it did not catch on.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper