musket

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a long, muzzle-loading shoulder firearm, especially the smoothbore infantry weapon used before rifles became standard

   The infantryman poured powder down the barrel before loading his musket.

Common collocations

• musket ball Noun + noun

Through Middle French mousquet from Italian moschetto, a diminutive of mosca ('fly'). The Italian word was also used for a sparrowhawk and a crossbow bolt before it named a firearm. This follows a wider European habit of naming weapons after animals, especially birds of prey.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images