Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A crossbow used in Europe in the chase and in war throughout the middle ages.
  • noun In heraldry, a crossbow used as a bearing.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative form of arbalest.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an engine that provided medieval artillery used during sieges; a heavy war engine for hurling large stones and other missiles

Etymologies

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Examples

  • So when the squadrons were arranged in the wedge, he stood himself behind the warriors, and from the wallet which was slung round his neck drew an arbalist.

    The Danish History, Books I-IX Grammaticus Saxo

  • Earthenware jars containing it were to be flung by hand or arbalist, and darts and arrows were wrapped with tow soaked in the substance.

    A History of Sea Power William Oliver Stevens 1916

  • Let us at least go back, fill up once more, and raise a mantelet against the bolts, for they have an arbalist which shoots both straight and hard.

    Sir Nigel Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1906

  • In the meantime here is Wat with his arbalist and a bolt in his girdle.

    Sir Nigel Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1906

  • Let us at least go back, fill up once more, and raise a mantelet against the bolts, for they have an arbalist which shoots both straight and hard.

    Sir Nigel Arthur Conan Doyle 1894

  • Betwixt the third couple of towers were the butts for arquebus, crossbow, and arbalist.

    The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VII (of X)—Continental Europe I Various 1885

  • Another name for the crossbow was 'arbalist,' and its arrows were called quarils, or bolts.

    Chatterbox, 1906 Various 1873

  • In the rencounters to which I am going -- the sorties, the assaults, the duels single and in force, the exchanges with all arms, bow, arbalist, guns small and great, the mines and countermines -- you cannot stay out.

    The Prince of India — Volume 02 Lewis Wallace 1866

  • But the strangest thing about them was, that in every picture the canvas about the head was pricked through and through in scores of places with very fine clean holes, and, looking around in his marvel, he found an arbalist or cross-bow, with some very sharp bolts, and was so led to conjecture that some one had been setting these heads of the Protector up as a target, and shooting bolts at them.

    The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 of 3 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... George Augustus Sala 1861

  • [85] Their encounter was varied, and balanced by the contrast of arms and discipline; of the direct charge, and wheeling evolutions; of the couched lance, and the brandished javelin; of a weighty broadsword, and a crooked sabre; of cumbrous armor, and thin flowing robes; and of the long Tartar bow, and the arbalist or crossbow, a deadly weapon, yet unknown to the Orientals.

    History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5 Edward Gibbon 1765

Comments

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  • A crossbow man or arbalestier. See also arbalest.

    August 24, 2008

  • buffy uses a crossbow

    September 15, 2011

  • a heavy weapon's list that may cause listing!

    January 20, 2012