1. A cluster of small iron balls or other small projectiles, often contained in a canvas bag, that scatter when fired from a cannon, formerly used as an antipersonnel round.
2. Such balls or projectiles considered as a group.
(Firearms, Gunnery, Ordnance & Artillery) ammunition for cannons consisting of a canvas tube containing a cluster of small iron or lead balls that scatter after firing
A cool Frenchman managed the gun; he stopped till the Indians approached close, and then raked their line with grape-shot: he thus laid thirty-nine of them on the ground; and, of course, such a blow immediately routed the whole party.
"It is certain sure that only a man who had had imagination enough to make a mysterious compact would be capable of going further than anybody else, and of passing through volleys of grape-shot and showers of bullets which carried us off like flies, but which had a respect for his head.
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