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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A relatively short cannon that delivers shells at a medium muzzle velocity, usually by a high trajectory.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A short piece of ordnance, usually having a hemispherical chamber for the powder narrower than the bore, specially designed for the horizontal firing of shells with small charges, and combining in some degree the accuracy of the cannon with the caliber of the mortar, but more portable than either. The Coehorn howitzer, used in India for mountain service, is light enough to be borne by a horse. The rifled gun, throwing a shell of the same capacity from a smaller bore, and with much greater power, has superseded the howitzer for general purposes.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A cannon that combines certain characteristics of guns and mortars. The howitzer delivers projectiles with medium velocities, either by low or high trajectories. JP 1-02.
  2. n. Normally a cannon with a tube length of 20 to 30 calibers; however, the tube length can exceed 30 calibers and still be considered a howitzer when the high angle fire zoning solution permits range overlap between charges. JP 1-02. See also gun; mortar.
  3. n. A powerfully hit shot. Rugby and Ice hockey.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A gun so short that the projectile, which was hollow, could be put in its place by hand; a kind of mortar.
  2. n. A short, light, largebore cannon, usually having a chamber of smaller diameter than the rest of the bore, and intended to throw large projectiles with comparatively small charges.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a muzzle-loading high-angle gun with a short barrel that fires shells at high elevations for a short range

Etymologies

  1. Dutch houwitser, from German Haubitze, alteration of obsolete haufnitz, catapult, from Old Czech haufnice, probably from haufnþ, catapult that slung many stones at once : hauf, group, heap (from probably from Middle High German hūfe, from Old High German hūfo) + -ny, n. suff.

Examples

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Comments

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  • reesetee A sandwich with hot sauce. :-) Mar 26, 2009

  • chained_bear ... a great sandwich... Mar 25, 2009

  • luftmensch This word also sounds like the name of a sandwich. Mar 25, 2009

  • chained_bear This term always sounded very modern to my ears—20th century at least—but it was used in the late 18th-early 19th centuries.

    Edit: checked etymology in the OED: "A deriv. of prec.; the same suffix appears in Du. houwitser (in 1663 houvietser), Fr. obusier for earlier obus (see Hatz.-Darm.)." So I guess it was originally a seventeenth-century term. Oct 9, 2008

‘howitzer’ has been looked up 800 times, added to 10 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 23.