blunderbuss
Americannoun
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a short musket of wide bore with expanded muzzle to scatter shot, bullets, or slugs at close range.
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an insensitive, blundering person.
noun
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an obsolete short musket with large bore and flared muzzle, used to scatter shot at short range
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informal a clumsy unsubtle person
Etymology
Origin of blunderbuss
1645–55; < Dutch donderbus (equivalent to donder thunder + bus gun, box 1 ) with donder replaced by blunder. See harquebus
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.
There is also a blunderbuss, a precursor to the shotgun, owned by Capt. Michael McClary.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 18, 2025
Dunphy’s lawsuit, filed last month in state court in New York, “contains a blunderbuss of contradictory allegations,” Giuliani said in his written response last Friday.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 6, 2023
Life does some blunderbuss thing on a system that's less forgiving than Earth was.
From Salon • Dec. 19, 2022
The Ranger ability gives Kirby a blunderbuss that he can use to snipe enemies from afar.
From The Verge • Jan. 12, 2022
On its back, a grim-looking mustached man in a cowboy hat brandished an old-fashioned blunderbuss, its wide metal mouth extending back over a wooden handle.
From "Dactyl Hill Squad" by Daniel José Older
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.
