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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A smoothbore shoulder gun used from the late 16th through the 18th century.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In falconry, an inferior kind of hawk; a sparrow-hawk. See eyas-musket.
  2. n. A hand-gun for soldiers, introduced in European armies in the sixteenth century: it succeeded the harquebus, and became in time the common arm of the infantry. It was at first very heavy, and was provided with a rest. The earliest muskets were matchlocks, which were superseded by the wheel-lock, the snaphance, the flint-lock, and the percussion-guns. The musket was made lighter, while still gaining in efficiency and accuracy. The rifle-musket was introduced in the middle of the nineteenth century. See rifle, and cuts under matchlock and gun.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A species of firearm formerly carried by the infantry of an army. It was originally fired by means of a match, or matchlock, for which several mechanical appliances (including the flintlock, and finally the percussion lock) were successively substituted. This arm has been superseded by the rifle.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) The male of the sparrow hawk.
  2. n. A species of firearm formerly carried by the infantry of an army. It was originally fired by means of a match, or matchlock, for which several mechanical appliances (including the flintlock, and finally the percussion lock) were successively substituted. This arm has been completely superseded by the rifle, and is now only of historical interest.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a muzzle-loading shoulder gun with a long barrel; formerly used by infantrymen

Etymologies

  1. French mousquet, itself from Italian moschetto, diminutive of mosca ("fly"). (Wiktionary)
  2. French mousquet, from Italian moschetto, a type of crossbow, musket, from moschetta, little fly, bolt of a crossbow, diminutive of mosca, fly, from Latin musca. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • hernesheir It's a bird, of course. Apr 7, 2011

  • reesetee *now wonders whether chained_bear uses lyrebirds to shoot* Jul 29, 2010

  • hernesheir A group of lyrebirds is called a musket. A musket of lyrebirds. Lovely. Jul 28, 2010

  • reesetee But not at people. *hopes* Jul 11, 2008

  • chained_bear Actually, yes. Well, shooting muskets, yes. Shooting them at people, no. Also cannons. Jul 11, 2008

  • bilby But shooting people with muskets - easily and safely of course - is in your job description? Jul 11, 2008

  • chained_bear "Pull slightly on the cock..." was NOT in my job description. I'll read that memo some more later. It's actually about 12 pages long. Jul 10, 2008

  • reesetee Oh, right. I forgot about that part for a second. :-D Jul 10, 2008

  • plethora I do! I want an Emmy. Jul 10, 2008

  • reesetee I do not want your job. Jul 10, 2008

  • chained_bear I just got a memo at work that contains the following:

    "Pull slightly on the cock to ensure you have the strength to operate that particular musket. The pull required varies between muskets and you should not take out a musket to shoot unless you can operate the cock easily and safely."

    Wow. Jul 10, 2008

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‘musket’ has been looked up 2029 times, loved by 1 person, added to 18 lists, commented on 11 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.