smooth-boren.

Forms: Also smoothbore, smooth bore.

Etymology: < smooth adj. + bore n.¹Previous versions of the OED give the stress as: ˈsmooth-bore.

1. A cannon or gun of which the barrel is made with a smooth or unrifled bore. In quot. 1848 with punning allusion to bore n.²

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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > [noun] > type of firearm > others

full bore1622

spingard1671

ordered armsa1689

double-barrel1811

smooth-bore1812

stern-chaser1835

shunt1864

shunt (rifled) gun1864

sidelocka1865

firer1885

slide action1921

Mike-Mike1969

multicalibre1986

1812 Weekly Reg. (Baltimore) 2 398/1 It was the best smooth bore he ever shot with in his life.

1834 W. A. Caruthers Kentuckian in N.Y. I. 21 Your smooth bores waste a deal of powder and lead.

1848 J. R. Lowell Fable for Critics (ed. 2) 1229 I divide bores myself, in the manner of rifles Into two great divisions..;—There's your smooth-bore and screw-bore [etc.].

1859 ‘Stonehenge’ Shot-gun 306 A ball from a smooth bore (that is, from a barrel not rifled in any way).

1897 Cent. Mag. Aug. 587 A powerful double-turreted monitor, carrying two 18-inch smooth-bores.

figurative.1883 J. Payn Thicker than Water xxiii One thought expelling another in the narrow smoothbore of her mind.

2. attributive.

a. Having a smooth or unrifled bore.

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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > [adjective] > by type of bore

rifled1619

screwed1657

full bore1666

wreathed1681

smooth-bore1799

small-bore1833

unrifled1851

poly-grooved1858

smooth-bored1859

polygroove1863

cylinder-bored1881

1799 in Deb. Congr. U.S. (1851) 7th Congress 2 Sess., App. 1402 One had a rifle, and the other a smooth-bore piece.

1859 Regulations for Musketry Instr. Army 31 During the passage of the spherical ball through the smooth-bore barrel.

1860 J. E. Tennent Story of Guns (1864) 228 These trials were made with the old smooth-bore cannon.

1879 Cassell's Techn. Educator (new ed.) I. 65 For many years the arm of the British soldier was a smooth~bore musket.

b. Adapted for guns having a smooth bore.

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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > ammunition for firearms > [adjective] > types of bullet or shell

armour-piercinga1686

rifled1797

high-velocity1854

smooth-bore1859

subcalibre1863

whistling1864

full-metal-jacketed1896

full-metal-jacket1898

pipsqueak1916

1859 F. A. Griffiths Artillerist's Man. (1862) 203 Smooth-bore projectiles.

Derivatives

ˈsmooth-bored adj. = 2a.

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