Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A relatively short cannon that delivers shells at a medium muzzle velocity, usually by a high trajectory.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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 The rifled gun, throwing a shell of the same capacity from a smaller bore, and with much greater power, has superseded the howitzer for general purposes.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
- 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.
- 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.
- n. A powerfully hit shot. Rugby and Ice hockey.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A gun so short that the projectile, which was hollow, could be put in its place by hand; a kind of mortar.
- 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
- n. a muzzle-loading high-angle gun with a short barrel that fires shells at high elevations for a short range
Etymologies
- 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
“Using a Ra-Be neutron source surrounded by a paraffin howitzer, a modest beam of thermalized neutrons was available for experimentation and, during my period at the Heights, this was directed towards a search for the expected paramagnetic scattering from certain materials.”
“A shot from the howitzer was to be the signal for the squadrons to charge.”
“The brigadier general, a polite little man who has lectured at the staff college for twenty years and who knows the last word in the science of warfare, especially of artillery, called the howitzer battery by telephone.”
“The howitzer was the only wheeled carriage now remaining.”
“New design ladder should be created where four arms extend out to secure base like a spade on a self-propelled howitzer aka artillery tank.”
WN.com - Articles related to The angry housewives setting Kashmir ablaze
“During those forty-eight hours, the big howitzer, which is the type of the heavy German siege train -- the 225 mm. -- was brought up, and it is possible that a couple of the still larger Austrian pieces of 280 mm. (what we call in this country the 11-inch), which are constructed with flat treadles to their wheels to fire from mats laid on any reasonably hard surface (such as a roadway), had been brought up as well.”
“VAUSE: Right now we're probably about 200 feet away from the nearest howitzer which is firing right now.”
“On the heels of Blink's shot came the crack of Happy Jack's "howitzer" as he fired blindly toward the hoof-beats.”
“Normally, Chris Cillizza focuses his Washington Post blog on national politics, but he notes the escalation at the Fix today, calling the ad a "howitzer":”
“Perhaps where you hunt is isolated and shooting a howitzer over a ridge would fall harmlessly.”
Lists
‘howitzer’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
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