ar·que·bus

(är′kə-bəs, -kwə-)

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

arquebus

(ˈɑːkwɪbəs) or

harquebus

(Firearms, Gunnery, Ordnance & Artillery) a portable long-barrelled gun dating from the 15th century: fired by a wheel-lock or matchlock. Also called: hackbut or hagbut

[C16: via Old French harquebuse from Middle Dutch hakebusse, literally: hook gun, from the shape of the butt, from hake hook + busse box, gun, from Late Latin busis box]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

har•que•bus

(ˈhɑr kwə bəs)

n., pl. -bus•es.

small-caliber long gun operated by a matchlock or wheel-lock mechanism, dating from about 1400.

[1525–35; < Middle French harquebusche (with intrusive -r-) < Middle Dutch hākebusse=hāke hook + busse gun (literally, box) < Late Latin buxis, for Latin buxus box¹]

har`que•bus•ier′ (-kwə bəˈsɪər) n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

arquebus - an obsolete firearm with a long barrel

hackbut, hagbut, harquebus

muzzle loader - an obsolete firearm that was loaded through the muzzle

Translations

arquebuse

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

The ball was not a musket ball--it was an arquebus ball.

The conflict was not long; the wretch had nothing to defend himself with but his discharged arquebus. The sword of the Guardsman slipped along the barrel of the now-useless weapon, and passed through the thigh of the assassin, who fell.

D'Artagnan took the soldier's arquebus, made him go on before him, and urged him toward his companion by pricking him behind with his sword.

View in context

Arquebus, based at Coventry University Technology Park, and Body Care Brand Development, based in Foleshill, both enjoy global success and are helping the Chamber's International Trade team to encourage more companies to export.

Coventry ranked as one of top exporting cities in the country

In the first battle against the Iroquois, on the shores of what would be known as Lake Champlain, superior European military technology that the enemy had never encountered before won the day: Champlain fired his arquebus (forerunner to the rifle), loaded with four balls, at the Iroquois chiefs, and killed two and wounded another with one shot.

BATTLE FOR A CONTINENT

In 1526, Bartolomeo Beretta was granted a contract to produce 185 arquebus barrels for the city of Venice.

THE BERETTA BROTHERS

Struck by a stray arquebus bullet from the enemy in the Battle of Noryang in 1598 on the east end of the Noryang Straits, he was about to die.

IOC rules sadden Canada-born goalie

However, it should be placed on the same shelf with Jacob de Gheyn's Arms Drill with Arquebus, Musket and Pike, written in 1607, for its historical significance rather than contemporary relevance.

G.S. Isserson and the War of the Future: Key Writings of a Soviet Military Theorist

My take is that hunters have been successful with fixed stocks since the arquebus, so it's one less variable to deal with.

Desert X: proving Rock River's latest and greatest in West Texas

On the blue walls of a downstairs gallery, several of Gustave Dore's matinee idol angels, two winged dandies from Peru (one armed with an arquebus), and a coterie of baroque cherubsdecidedly Christian imagesare joined not only by Islamic and Hindu angels, but by angel-embellished ketubot from Italy and Morocco, contemporary Israeli paintings of angels, and Paul Klee's "Angelus Novus," which Walter Benjamin owned, cherished, and transformed in his writing into a paradigmatic symbol of existential despair in the face of the Holocaust.

Today on Tablet

The snug has an oddly shaped window that was listed as being the window through which an arquebus (an early muzzle-loaded ?rearm) was shot.

A first hand glimpse at life in medieval England; Dating back to the 15th century, this unique house is a hidden historical gem as Alison Jones discovers