blunderbuss

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“
The Westinghouse division, it seemed, was a good two miles away As Malone knew perfectly well, the main portion of the entire Yucca Flats area was devoted solely to research on the new space drive which was expected to make the rocket as obsolete as the blunderbuss--at least as far as space travel was concerned.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A short musket of wide bore and flaring muzzle, formerly used to scatter shot at close range.
  2. noun A person regarded as clumsy and stupid.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The blunderbuss was a family heirloom, and they had always wondered whether Pat could hit anything with it Their driver got a glimpse of the gun. —  143 - Violent Night
  • Let us stop and find you a mighty blunderbuss, and go liberate our castle There was, of course, no one there. —  A Letter of Mary - Laurie R. King - Russell-Holmes 03
  • It's an unwieldy blunderbuss, not a rapier -- and the use of "hamburger" as synecdoche for our national obesity problem is a new hackneyed low for the Oscar Wilde of the microphone. —  Snarksmith: new york. gossip. art. politics. pop culture. literature. etc.
  • Preferably, this scapegoat will be some local stooge, a fall guy to divert attention from the fact that the main reason for this resurgence is Washington's witless, blunderbuss, blood-and-iron approach -- the very same approach that Obama and his anonymous tough-guy leakers are proposing to escalate. —  Chris Floyd - Empire Burlesque
  • The last time Edward Liddy faced a vexing compensation issue, as chief executive of Northbrook-based Allstate Corp., he cut costs with all the finesse of a blunderbuss: He axed 6,000 of Allstate's highest-paid agents. —  DownWithTyranny!
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Alteration of Dutch donderbus : donder, thunder (from Middle Dutch doner; see (s)tenə- in Indo-European roots) + bus, gun (from Middle Dutch busse, tube, from Latin buxis, box; see box1).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. In 17th century also blunderbus and blunderbush; apparently a modification, prob. with humorous allusion to its blundering or random action, of Dutch donderbus (= German donnerbüchse), a blunderbuss, from donder (= German donner = English thunder) + bus, a box, urn, barrel of a gun, same as buis, a tube, pipe, = German büchse, a box, pot, barrel of a gun, pipe, etc., = English box. Cf. the equivalent G. blunderbüchse, in imitation of the English, but prob. with a thought of plunder, baggage, lumber (English plunder), in allusion to its heaviness. A charter of James I. (1617) mentions “plantier-busse, alias blanterbusse,” as equivalent to harquebuse, but the first element here is different, ult. from Latin plantare, plant (fix). Cf. Scots blunyierd, an old gun, any old rusty weapon.
 

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/ˈbləndərbəs/
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