culverin

American  

[kuhl-ver-in] / ˈkʌl vər ɪn /

noun

1. medieval form of musket.

2. a kind of heavy cannon used in the 16th and 17th centuries.

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culverin British  

/ ˈkʌlvərɪn /

noun

1. a long-range medium to heavy cannon used during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries

2. a medieval musket

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Etymology

Origin of culverin

1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French coulevrine < Latin colubrīna, feminine of colubrīnus colubrine

Example Sentences

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

Later Winston remembered watching in paralyzed horror as the linstock clattered against the breech of the culverin, scattering sparks.

From Caribbee by Hoover, Thomas

To the east was the Tower of London, black with age, armed with cannon and culverin, and representing the munificence which entertained royalty as well as the power which punished traitors.

From A History of the Cries of London Ancient and Modern by Hindley, Charles

I wrote concerning it, by the patache; and will only state here the number of pieces—namely, eleven of cast iron and one bronze culverin, these being large pieces.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 29 of 55 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century by Various