Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A weapon of the 15th and 16th centuries having an axlike blade and a steel spike mounted on the end of a long shaft.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A broad blade with sharp edges ending in a sharp point, mounted on a handle from 5 to 7 feet long: a weapon common in the middle ages and later. It was especially in use during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and was made in extraordinary forms, particularly during the later years of its use, having points in different directions, and various edges, curved or straight. Decorated halberds with the blades richly engraved were used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by palace-guards. Compare
halberdier . - n. A projection on the fore part of a horseshoe, designed to relieve the foot in cases of lameness.
Wiktionary
- n. A hand weapon consisting of a long pole fitted with a metal head; the head consists of a blade similar to an axe and usually a spike or hook.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Mil.) An ancient long-handled weapon, of which the head had a point and several long, sharp edges, curved or straight, and sometimes additional points. The heads were sometimes of very elaborate form.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a pike fitted with an ax head
Etymologies
- (1495) Middle French hallebarde, from Middle High German halmbarte ("broad-axe with handle"), from halm ("handle") + barte ("hatchet") (Wiktionary)
- French hallebarde, from Old French alabarde, from Old Italian alabarda, from Middle High German helmbarde, halmbarte : helm, handle + barte, ax (from Old High German barta; see bhardh-ā- in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“An ensign-halyard-block is no more a pulley than your halberd is a boarding-pike.”
“Clad in flamboyant striped uniforms, the guard's role is largely ceremonial and many of its members still carry around a medieval weapon - the halberd, which is a combination of spear and battle axe.”
“The halberd is a far cry from the powerful scythe you'll be armed with for the majority of the game; nonetheless, Dante is a powerful fighter and you'll make quick work of the enemy soldiers by using both light and heavy attacks (tied to the X and Y buttons on the Xbox 360 controller, respectively).”
GameSpot's News, Screenshots, Movies, Reviews, Previews, Downloads, and Features
“[Footnote 28: The halberd is the special arm of the Japanese woman of gentle blood.”
“In walks Richard Dawkins bearing the staff of angry atheism, Immanuel Kant brandishing the cudgel of the categorical imperative, Pat Roberston wielding the halberd of Haitian hate, and DJ Grothe with the scimitar of secular humanism.”
“After seeing some of the pics I posted about in my post on Prince of Persia action figures, like the double bladed halberd assassin it was looking like the figures were pretty promising but that doesn't seem like Jake Gyllenhaal at all (the face is a mess).”
“Chucky takes the right side, carrying the massive halberd with the shotgun slung over his back.”
“In his hands a massive, ornate halberd, five feet long—at the top, a dazzling but deadly battle ax with sword blade at the peak.”
“Chucky scuttles down the aisle, halberd out, and spears it.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘halberd’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Not 250 Spelling Words Again
Yet more spelling words for intermediate to advanced spellers.
kyoodle, heimin, feis, menarche, cordwainer, gherao, zythum, accidie, anastomosis, boustrophedon, oleum, penicillin and 238 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Gygax's Glossary
In hesitant beginning of a tribute to the man who—before Nabokov or Joyce or anyone 1000 times more exalted—infected me with a fever for language.
psionic, prismatic, gelatinous, dweomer, initiative, kobold, geas, shambling, gibbering, cuirass, halberd, ioun stone and 4 more...
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Nethack words
Words you mainly only encounter whilst playing Nethack.
troglodyte, skirmisher, coalesce, djinni, stripling, uncursed, Elbereth, tripe, lichen, grid bug, kobold, naiad and 16 more...
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RPG
rogue, alchemy, lady's favor, trollkin, herald's call, critical hit, insect plague, alteration, conjuration, destruction, mysticism, illusion and 65 more...
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Favorite Words
pablum, maundy, histrionic, adamant, ascribe, verbiage, insouciant, erudite, gregarious, superfluous, banal, obdurate and 280 more...
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Greek Fire
being items related to mediaeval warfare, arms and armaments.
caltrop, ballista, trebuchet, mangonel, petard, onager, petrary, hurlbat, francisca, crossbow, longbow, flail and 97 more...
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Notre Dame de Paris
From Notre Dame de Paris by good ole Victor Hugo. (Also called The Hunchback of Notre Dame.)
cuivres, diable, hawthorn, provost, epithalamium, affrighted, mendicants, vagrants, Styx, chimeras, coif, matagrabolise and 196 more...
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I, Claudius
Words taken from I, Claudius by Robert Graves.
evocation, aureus, sestertii, denarii, assegai, pilum, framea, sibyl, propitiatory, duenna, tyrannicide, maggoty and 136 more...
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Military Matters
words of mass (or minor) destruction
caltrop, stylet, chassepot, baldric, rewet, blunderbuss, musket, flintlock, howitzer, ordnance, casque, dragoon and 148 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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random
words I read but don't know
nascent, proxy, desultory, charlatan, churlish, emaciated, gaudy, shill, lurid, frisson, marauding, plunder and 610 more...
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bobodod's Words
cultie, screwery, gauge, wanker, truthiness, harangue, mediocre, ragamuffin, elysian, spoonerism, loquacious, apostle and 240 more...
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A History of Violence
rampart, riposte, kris, claymore, cleave, caponier, jujitsu, ninja, rapier, bayonet, shiv, ballistics and 16 more...
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