Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A battleship armed with six or more guns having calibers of 12 inches or more.
Wiktionary
- n. a battleship, especially of the World War I era, in which most of the firepower is concentrated in large guns that are of the same caliber.
- n. informal a type of warship heavier in armour or armament than a typical battleship
- n. One that is the largest or the most powerful of its kind.
- n. A garment made of thick woollen cloth that can defend against storm and cold.
- n. The cloth itself; fearnaught.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A British battleship, completed in 1906 -- 1907, having an armament consisting of ten 12-inch guns mounted in turrets, and of twenty-four 12-pound quick-fire guns for protection against torpedo boats. This was the first battleship of the type characterized by a main armament of big guns all of the same caliber. She had a displacement of 17,900 tons at load draft, and a speed of 21 knots per hour.
- n. Any battleship having its main armament entirely of big guns all of one caliber. Since the Dreadnought was built, the caliber of the heaviest guns has increased from 12 in. to 131/2 in., 14 in., and 15 in., and the displacement of the largest batteships from 18,000 tons to 30,000 tons and upwards. The term superdreadnought is popularly applied to battleships with such increased displacement and gun caliber.
WordNet 3.0
- n. battleship that has big guns all of the same caliber
Etymologies
- Named after HMS Dreadnought, the first battleship finished of this type, from dread + nought (Wiktionary)
Examples
“And in his who's who entry, he lists as one of his interests, the British admiral, the Naval admiral, Jackie Fisher, and he was an admiral in the 1900s and he was the first one to commission this giant warship called the dreadnought, a massive, great big battleship.”
“The "dreadnought" body style was one of these triumphs; it included a larger, deeper body that provided more volume and bass resonance.”
The Wall Street Journal: Five Great Depression Success Stories
“They proved to be the three Kentucky hunters, of the true "dreadnought" stamp.”
Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains
“Kentucky hunters, of the true "dreadnought" stamp.”
Astoria, or, anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains
“Since the 1950s, Mr. Adiga writes, Vishram has stood as a "dreadnought of middle-class respectability" amid the slums and swamplands of northern Mumbai.”
The Wall Street Journal: Quixotic Obstinance, Quicksilver Memory
“Hiatt's eponymous Gibson dreadnought buzzed and untuned itself throughout the two-hour performance, which added a rock-and-roll edge to the unplugged affair.”
The Washington Post: In concert: Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt at the Birchmere
“The Spy" by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott is a wonderfully written and historically fascinating espionage novel set in pre-World War I America, in which our hero, Isaac Bell a characteristically brilliant and strong Yale man, stops a slew of Japanese, German and English spies who are trying to break America's secret program to build the most powerful dreadnought battleships and control the world's waters.”
“It appears that the director made use of actual WW2 era (American?) destroyers and added some smoke stacks and flying bridges to them – to simulate Japanese pre-dreadnought ships.”
“I love the pre-dreadnought era of naval history, with its giant flaring brass ventilator shafts, underpowered guns, white paint and coal funnels.”
HMVS Cerberus, for *free* on the Paper Shipwright « Third Point of Singularity
“Personally, I figure if you're going to build a dreadnought and want to keep it from falling into enemy hands, don't build in a self-destruct, build in an autopilot programmed to collide with the nearest enemy ship.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dreadnought’.
-
science fact or fiction
pretty open-ended here—terms, ideas, lingo, technologies and phenomena (real or postulated) that are, were, should be or could be used in speculative fiction
tachyon, mecha, dropship, wetware, meatspace, nanobot, cloned meat, asteroid mining, hyperdrive, wormhole, parallel universe, distributed intel... and 464 more...
-
phrontistery - d
from phrontistery.info
dysteleology, dyslogistic, dystectic, dysphoria, dysphonia, dystopia, dysphemism, dystocia, dyslogia, dysaesthesia, dyschromatopic, dysbulia and 624 more...
-
MUSIC - ALL TERMS
With focus on non-classical styles, but not excluding terms of the latter.
banjo, accompaniment, acoustic bass, bass guitar, bass clef, ground, brass, cornet, Mute, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, arrangement and 866 more...
-
Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
-
Amusing Nautical Words
coxswain, mizzenmast, boomjumper, abaft, cuddy, theodolite, gurrybutt, lily iron, yaw, lobscouse, orlop, dreadnought
-
Killjoy et al
Namely, compounds consisting of a verb with a direct object immediately after it, without inflection
killjoy, lickspigot, quakebuttock, throttlebottom, scattergood, scapegrace, swillbowl, tosspot, breakfast, cutthroat, pickpocket, dreadnought and 84 more...
-
noughty words
fearnought, dreadnought, nought, talknought, noughties, noughtihood, nought the less, noughting, noughts and crosses, eatnought, sleepnought, shitnought and 56 more...
-
Moby Dick
Words of interest from the book Moby Dick.
arrant, obstreperously, coffer-dam, farrago, rejoinder, counterpane, hamper, commend, grego, dreadnought, psalmody, expostulation and 85 more...
-
Awesome Names for Your Heavy Metal Band
onslaught, gamecock, chthonic, hoarfrost, kernicterus, keelhaul, simulacrum, clavicle, interregnum, catafalque, gravamen, blunderbuss and 47 more...
-
Out to Sea
If I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat.boat, ship, skiff, barge, canoe, catamaran, yacht, scow, lifeboat, launch, ketch, dory and 303 more...
-
Things from my memory
nigger baby, mexican jumping bean, puddle jumper, mood ring, pet rock, cat scratch fever, taxman, hippie, vaseline, argyrol, mercurchrome, methiolade and 655 more...
-
Amalgamations
Words that have been smashed together.
keystone, touchstone, footprint, thunderhead, seesaw, textbook, leftovers, watchword, afterbirth, fieldwork, outcast, statesman and 148 more...
-
Ships of Fame
Famous ship names that I've heard of and/or like. Includes airships. See also the list Ships, if you want to.
bonhomme richard, serapis, monitor, virginia, florizel, aurora, stephano, golden hind, santa maria, pinta, nina, beagle and 119 more...
-
je les adore!
fusillade, foal, celestial, abattoir, byzantium, berlin, casablanca, babylon, balkans, albion, avalon, between the devil... and 471 more...
-
Compounds That Look Freakish
You know who you are, freakish compounds. Though very useful, some of these words just don't seem right together--or, their meanings are so far from what the two (or more) component words suggest t...
nightjar, bullfinch, grassquit, bananaquit, ovenbird, waxwing, stonechat, wheatear, bushtit, wrentit, starthroat, godwit and 158 more...
-
Whaleworthy & Piratical Words
A list of favorite nautical words to be sprinkled liberally throughout speech for piratical or Melvillian effect.
batten down, back and fill, beamy, baulking, beckets, bilge, bold shore, boomjumper, breaker, larboard, abaft, ash breeze and 156 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dreadnought.
halcyon I don't suppose anyone else listed this one out of fond memories of the overwhelming wonder that was the Phyrexian Dreadnought? Mar 16, 2008
treeseed See Hummingbird Feb 17, 2008
chained_bear "It was a hard life, but he made it to the end." Feb 15, 2008
reesetee Hey, getting old ain't for sissies. :-) Feb 15, 2008
skipvia Sorry, reesette. This senility thing is rough. Thanks for the information--it makes sense that there was a connection. Nice glossary, too. Feb 15, 2008
reesetee That was me, skipvia. :-) But thanks. I poked around a bit and found a good definition here. It's also a nice guitar-related glossary. :-) Feb 14, 2008
skipvia I don't really know, c_b. I can't find any evidence one way or the other. The dreadnought shape was larger than the then-predominant parlor guitar shape and it was much louder and clearer than previous shapes, so perhaps there is a connection there. Feb 14, 2008
reesetee Interesting, skipvia! Was it named after the British battleship, do you know? Feb 14, 2008
skipvia This word has a very different connotation to a guitar player. It's the standard shape of most modern acoustic guitars, having been designed by the Martin company in 1931. Feb 14, 2008
reesetee Very true. And yet I can't help but think of it with amusement now that it's become one of my "Bigger SUV" names. :-) Feb 14, 2008
yarb I don't know why, rt. There's no story. I just think it's a dreadful, awesome word, evocative of carnage and havoc. Feb 14, 2008
reesetee Do tell, yarb! Feb 13, 2008
yarb This word makes me want to go "RAAAAAA!" Feb 13, 2008
chained_bear New '59 Cadillac Dreadnought! ... features 12-foot bar, spacious den... --Our Dumb Century, the Onion
(I'm paraphrasing from memory) Dec 8, 2007