Musket

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Musket \Mus"ket\, n. [F. mousquet, It. moschetto, formerly, a
     kind of hawk; cf. OF. mousket, moschet, a kind of hawk
     falcon, F. mouchet, prop., a little fly (the hawk prob. being
     named from its size), fr. L. musca a fly. Cf. {Mosquito}.]
     [Sometimes written also {musquet}.]
     1. (Zool.) The male of the sparrow hawk.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. 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        completely superseded by the rifle, and is now only of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.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  musket
       n : a muzzle-loading shoulder gun with a long barrel; formerly
           used by infantrymen

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  21 Moby Thesaurus words for "musket":
     automatic, blowgun, blowpipe, firearm, flamethrower, gat, gun,
     handgun, heater, peashooter, piece, pistol, repeater, revolver,
     rifle, rod, sawed-off shotgun, shooting iron, shotgun, six-gun,
     six-shooter