caissonn.
/ˈkeɪsən//keɪˈsuːn/ 1. Military.
a. A chest containing bombs or other explosives, to be buried and fired as a mine.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > explosive device > [noun] > land-mine
petard1566
powder minea1639
fougade1643
bomb-chest1704
caisson1704
globe of compression1771
torpedo1786
fougasse1832
stifler1836
landmine1875
observation mine1886
egg1917
1704 in J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I.
1721 in N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. Caisson [in Fortification], a Chest of Wood holding four or 6 Bombs, or sometimes filled only with Powder, and buried under Ground, by the Besieged, to blow up a Work the Besiegers are like to be Masters of.
1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Caisson, a chest of bombs or powder, laid in the enemy's way to be fired at their approach.
1772 T. Simes Mil. Guide (at cited word)
b. A chest containing ammunition; a wagon for conveying ammunition. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > equipment for use with firearms > [noun] > ammunition chest
caisson1704
laboratory chest1769
cassoon1801
limber-box1801
limber-chest1888
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > military vehicles > [noun] > vehicles for transport of supplies collectively > ammunition cart or wagon
ammunition wagon1648
caisson1704
powder cart1795
car battery1876
1704 in J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I.
1708 J. Kersey Dict. Anglo-Britannicum Caisson, a covered Waggon, or Carriage for Provisions, or Ammunition for an Army.
1724 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. (ed. 2) Caisson,..a Chest of Wood holding four or 6 Bombs, or sometimes filled only with Powder, and buried under Ground, by the Besieged.
1812 Examiner 23 Aug. 532/1 20 caissons of ammunition.
1866 H. Bushnell Vicarious Sacrifice iii. iii. 285 The retributive causes of nature roll out their heavy caisson with us.
1870 Echo 14 Nov. Several artillery caissons captured at Orleans were found to be filled with wearing apparel.
2. Hydraulics.
a. A large watertight case or chest used in laying foundations of bridges, etc., in deep water.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > building and constructing equipment > [noun] > case used in underwater construction
chest1679
caisson1753
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Caisson is also used for a kind of chest used in laying the foundations of the piers of bridges.
1765 Ann. Reg. 12/2 The greatest part of the first course [of the sixth pier of Blackfriars bridge] carried by the Caissoon.
1823 P. Nicholson New Pract. Builder 305 M. Labelye erected the piers [of Westminster Bridge] in caissons, or water-tight boxes.
1875 B. W. Richardson Dis. Mod. Life 70 The effect of atmospheric pressure on men who are employed to work in caissons.
b. In Canal-making. Formerly, a large watertight cistern or reservoir made at any point where the canal had to be extended over lower ground, in order to enable the boats to come forward with material for the embankment.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > body of water > channel of water > [noun] > navigable waterway > canal > constructing canals > watertight structure used in
caisson1769
1769 Defoe's Tour Great Brit. (ed. 7) III. 272 At Stretford, three Miles off, is the Caisson 40 Yards long by 32.
1827 R. Southey Select. from Lett. (1856) IV. 546.
1861 S. Smiles Lives Engineers I. 382 Brindley..had the stuff required to make up the embankment brought in boats..conducted from the canal along which they had come into caissons or cisterns placed at the point over which the earth and clay had to be deposited.
c. A vessel in the form of a boat used as a floodgate in docks.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessel of specific construction or shape > flat-bottomed boat > [noun] > used as support, wharf, or gate
pont1631
pontoon1676
tin-boat1677
wharf-boat1849
caisson1854
caisson-gate1866
1854 Fairbairn in Proc. Inst. C. Engin. 9 May The employment of caissons for closing the entrance to wet or dry docks.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Caisson, a vessel fitted with valves, to act instead of gates for a dry dock.
d. ‘A sort of float sunk to a required depth by letting water into it, when it is hauled under the ship's bottom,..and on pumping out the water floats her’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.); = camel n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment for moving ship over bar or shoal > [noun] > apparatus giving increased buoyancy
floating dam1706
camel1716
caisson1811
camel-engine186.
float-case1874
1811 Naval Chron. 25 219 This caisson or floating dock is made of wrought iron.
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3. Architecture. ‘A sunken panel in ceilings, vaults, and cupolas’. Gwilt Encycl. Archit.
Compounds
caisson disease n. (see quots.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > environmental disorders > [noun] > atmospheric pressure
puna1835
mountain sickness1848
soroche1878
caisson disease1883
the bends1894
altitude sickness1901
caisson sickness1911
decompression sickness1941
ebullism1956
1883 Harper's Mag. July 945/1 The ‘caisson disease’ is the result of living under atmospheric pressure greatly above that to which the human system is normally adapted.
1887 Health 11 Mar. 394 What is known as the ‘caisson disease’ is not produced by the mere increase of atmospheric pressure, but by the sudden diminution of it on leaving the caisson, which produces ruptures of small blood-vessels.
caisson-gate n. = sense 2c.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessel of specific construction or shape > flat-bottomed boat > [noun] > used as support, wharf, or gate
pont1631
pontoon1676
tin-boat1677
wharf-boat1849
caisson1854
caisson-gate1866
1866 Cornhill Mag. Mar. 381 23 feet depth of water when the caisson-gates are opened.
caisson sickness n. = caisson disease n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > environmental disorders > [noun] > atmospheric pressure
puna1835
mountain sickness1848
soroche1878
caisson disease1883
the bends1894
altitude sickness1901
caisson sickness1911
decompression sickness1941
ebullism1956
1911 Engineer 10 Mar. 243 Caisson Sickness and Compressed Air.
Derivatives
caissonier n. /keɪsəˈnɪə(r)/ one who works in a caisson.
/keɪsəˈnɪə(r)/ one who works in a caisson.ΚΠ
1903 Strand Mag. Jan. 98/2 The lives of ‘the men in the box’, i.e. the caissoniers, are in the greatest danger.
ˈcaissoning n.
ΚΠ
1903 Strand Mag. Jan. 101/2 After all these terrors it is perhaps astonishing to be told..that caissoning would be sought by any considerable number of men.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1888; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1704