| 释义 |
▪ I. musket1 Obs. exc. Hist.|ˈmʌskɪt|
Also 5 muskyte, 5–7 muskett(e, 7 musquet.
[a. ONF. musket (AF. pl. muskez, 1332 in Litt. Cant. I. cccclxi. 486), mousquet, Central OF. mouchet (mod.Fr. corruptly émouchet) = It. moschetto a small kind of sparrowhawk.
The word has the form of a dim. of Com. Rom. mosca:—L. musca fly: cf. It. moscardo of the same meaning. Some scholars regard the name as alluding to the diminutive size of the bird, others as meaning ‘speckled’ comparing F. moucheter to mark with spots like flies or fly-specks.]
The male of the sparrowhawk.
c1425Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 641/14 Hic capus, muskett. c1475Pict. Voc. ibid. 761/6 Hic capus, a muskyte. 1486Bk. St. Albans b v b, Tho that kepe Sperhawkys and muskettys ben called Speruiteris. 1581J. Derricke Image Irel. D ij b, Then the Iacke and Musket laste, by whom the birds are vext. 1614Markham Cheap Husb., Of Hawkes i. 135 The Gos-hawke and her Tercell, The Sparrow-Hawke Musket, and such like. 1687Dryden Hind & P. iii. 1119 The Musquet and the Coystrel were too weak. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 236/1 A Musket is the Male of a Spar⁓hawk or Sparrow-hawk.
▪ II. musket2|ˈmʌskɪt|
Forms: 6 mosquet, muscat, 6–7 muskett(e, 7 muscatt(e, musquatte, 7–9 musquet, 6– musket.
[a. F. mousquet (in 16th c. also mousquette fem.), ad. It. moschetto, orig. a kind of sparrowhawk (see musket1). With regard to the practice of naming species of firearms from birds of prey, cf. falcon, falconet, saker.]
1. A hand-gun of the kind with which infantry soldiers are armed.
Originally applied to the matchlock, and in the 18th c. still sometimes distinguished from the ‘firelock’ or ‘fusee’. (From early examples it appears that arrows as well as bullets were discharged from muskets.) Subsequently it became the general name for the infantry gun, whatever its construction. This use still survives, but as the modern gun is commonly (and in the Army Regulations) called by the specific term rifle, there is a tendency to restrict musket to the obsolete forms of the weapon.
c1587Sir R. Knyghtley in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 225 Muskettes and calleevers and holebertes shall be provided for this company. 1590Sir J. Smyth (title) Certain Discourses,..concerning the formes and effects of divers sorts of weapons,..and chiefly, of the Mosquet, the Caliver and the Long-bow. 1595R. Johnson 7 Champions ii. (1608) O j, Like unto an arrow forced from a musket. 1598Barret Theor. Warres ii. i. 27 One good musket may be accounted for two calliuers. 1639Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876) I. 400, 32 musquattis at {pstlg}9 16s. 8d. the peice. 1672Capt. T. Venn Milit. Obs. Art Drilling ii. 34 The Musquet is to be rested at the sentinel posture. 1727–52Chambers Cycl., Musket, or Musquet, properly a fire-arm borne on the shoulder, and used in war; to be fired by the application of a lighted match... At present they are little used save in the defence of places; fusees, or fire-locks, having taken their place. 1764Mem. G. Psalmanazar 153 He had too great a regard for me, to send me with them to carry a brown musket. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 126 Five or six men, armed with musquets and ginjals. 1876Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. (ed. 3) s.v., The musket, as it is still called, has been brought to great perfection in the rifled small-arm of the present day.
2. attrib. and Comb., as musket ammunition, musket ball, musket barrel, musket bullet, musket butt, musket charge, musket flint, musket range, musket reach, musket stock; musket-armed, musket-like, musket-proof adjs. Also musket-arrow, a short arrow discharged from a musket; musket basket (see quot. 1704); musket powder, the kind of gunpowder used for small-arms; musket-rest, a forked staff to support the heavy musket in use before the middle of the 17th century; musket-slit, a slit in a wall through which a musket may be fired.
1810Wellington Let. 12 June in Gurw. Desp. (1836) VI. 188 The state of the *musket ammunition..is not so bad as [etc.].
1885H. M. Stanley Congo I. 388 Its one-story block-house..impregnable to *musket-armed natives.
159.in Meyrick Ant. Armour (1824) III. 67 *Musket arrowes with 22 shefe to be newfethered. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Musket arrows, used in our early fleets, and for conveying notices in 1815.
1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 165 We returned the salute with our *musket-ball. 1825J. Neale Bro. Jonathan III. 109 A musket-ball had gone thro' both legs.
1644Evelyn Diary 27 Feb., Two extravagant musqueteeres shot us with a streme of water from their *musket barrells.
1688Capt. J. S. Fortification 125 *Musket-Baskets, or smaller Gabions. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. l, Musket-Baskets, in Fortification, are Baskets of about a Foot and half high... They are filled with Earth, and are set on low Parapets or Breast-works,..that the Musketeers may fire between them at the Enemy.
1598Barret Theor. Warres 167 It is not so light a matter to skirmish among the *musket bullet.
1813Scott Rokeby vi. xxxiii, Sword, halberd, *musket-but. 1859J. Grant Leg. Black Watch (Rtldg.) 374 Stunned by a blow from a musket-butt.
c1610Middleton, etc. Widow iv. ii, I'll send him a whole *musket-charge of gunpowder.
1743Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 102 Twelve *Musket-Flints.
1892Greener Breechloader 71 Guns quite plain, almost *musket-like in their outward appearance.
1644Nye Gunnery (1647) 5 The *Musket Powder is now commonly made of Saltpetre five parts, one part of Brimstone, and one of Cole. 1880Encycl. Brit. XI. 319/1 It was the custom for the fine grain or musket powder to contain a larger proportion of saltpetre than that for cannon.
1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 92 The horsemen were all armed, many of whose curasses were heigh *musket proofe. 1603in Meyrick Ant. Armour (1824) III. 81 Two blacke armors of muskett proofe. 1622Sir R. Hawkins Observ. Voy. S. Sea lxvi. 164 The vpper worke of their shippes being Muskets proofe. 1863Yonge Brit. Navy II. 437 A musket-proof stockade.
1834–47J. S. Macaulay Field Fortif. (1581) 141 Villages commanded by the neighbouring ground, within *musket-range.
1646H. P. Medit. Seige 23 To be gall'd with their small shot, if they be within *musket reach.
1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in H. ii. v, He will neuer come within the signe of it, the sight of a cassock, or a *musket-rest againe.
1856Mayhew Rhine 225 You perceive *musket-slits hemming you in on every side.
1833Penny Cycl. I. 77/1 Its wood is so hard as to be in request for the manufacture of *musket-stocks.
▪ III. musket
variant of musk-cat. |