spontoon
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of spontoon
1590–1600; < French esponton < Italian spuntone, equivalent to s- ex- 1 + puntone kind of weapon (literally, pointed object) ( punt ( o ) point + -one augmentative suffix)
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.
Using as a whetstone a small slab of black marble, similarly acquired, he had shaped that bolt into a sharp octagonal-pointed chisel or spontoon.
From The Historical Nights' Entertainment First Series by Rafael Sabatini
Captain Lewis ran about eighty yards, but finding that the animal gained on him fast ... he turned short, plunged into the river about waist deep, and facing about presented the point of his spontoon.
From Explorers and Travellers by Adolphus W. Greely
The wolves which had been feasting on these carcasses were very fat, and so gentle that one of them was killed with a spontoon.
From With the World's Great Travellers, Volume 1 by Various
The officers, I remember, carried what was formerly used in our service, a long sort of pole, with a head like a halberd, and called, I believe, a "spontoon."
From Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade by William Surtees
The captain and lieutenant bore in their hands the partisan, which had already been a little diminished, and was called spontoon; the subordinate officers still carried the short pike.
From Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries, Vol. II. by Gustav Freytag
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
