Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A heavy portable matchlock gun invented during the 1400s.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An old form of hand-firearm.
  • noun A harquebusier.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A firearm with match holder, trigger, and tumbler, made in the second half of the 15th century. The barrel was about forty inches long. A form of the harquebus was subsequently called arquebus with matchlock.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An obsolete matchlock firearm.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an obsolete firearm with a long barrel

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Obsolete French harquebuse, from Old French, alteration of Middle Dutch hakebus : hake, hook; see keg- in Indo-European roots + busse, gun (from Late Latin buxis, box; see box).]

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Examples

  • It was also typical that the prosecutor would have enlisted someone else to deliver it, one of the lads who regarded Arkady as ancient and as unpredictable as a loaded harquebus.

    Three Stations : An Arkady Renko Novel Martin Cruz Smith 2010

  • Malinalli had not yet finished translating these last words when the discharge of a harquebus signaled the beginning of the slaughter.

    MALINCHE Laura Esquivel 2007

  • Without the mastery of the language, his weapons were useless; it would be like using a harquebus as a club instead of firing it.

    MALINCHE Laura Esquivel 2007

  • Ruby had taken the relic piece — more relative to the harquebus than to the current fashion in rifles — and hunted wild turkey and deer through the winter, jerking the venison by the fire like an Indian.

    Cold Mountain Frazier, Charles, 1950- Cold Mountain 2003

  • Raising the harquebus, Sulu fired and was almost knocked down by the heavy weapon.

    Shadow Lord Laurence Yep 2000

  • Raising the harquebus, Sulu fired and was almost knocked down by the heavy weapon.

    Shadow Lord Laurence Yep 2000

  • Raising the harquebus, Sulu fired and was almost knocked down by the heavy weapon.

    Shadow Lord Laurence Yep 2000

  • Ruby had taken the relic piece -- more relative to the harquebus than to the current fashion in rifles -- and hunted wild turkey and deer through the winter, jerking the venison by the fire like an Indian.

    Cold Mountain Frazier, Charles, 1950- Cold Mountain 1997

  • I also see a modern U. S.-made rifle, an AK-47, or a harquebus from the times of the Spanish conquistadors.

    Mexican Newspaper Interviews Fidel Castro Part IX Comments on Insurgencies 1995

  • Mary could see Riccio grab on to the bedpost in the bedroom, only to have his fingers clubbed with the stock of a harquebus.

    Mary Queen Of Scotland And The Isles George, Margaret 1987

Comments

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  • See usage/definition on harquebuss.

    October 9, 2008

  • Also arquebus.

    October 9, 2008