culverin
Americannoun
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medieval form of musket.
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a kind of heavy cannon used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
noun
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a long-range medium to heavy cannon used during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries
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a medieval musket
Etymology
Origin of culverin
1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French coulevrine < Latin colubrīna, feminine of colubrīnus colubrine
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.
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
A culverin is but the whiff of an oaten pipe, compared with a hag upon her broomstick.
From Rob of the Bowl, Vol. I (of 2) A Legend of St. Inigoe's by Kennedy, John P.
“God is great!”—ejaculated a gaily-bedecked stripling, as he added an extra pinch of powder, for good luck, to the handful already poured into his long culverin.
From The Highlands of Ethiopia by Harris, William Cornwallis
All hopes were now centered in me, and on the culverin, which I had polished until it shone like gold.
From Told by the Death's Head A Romantic Tale by J?kai, M?r
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.
