Artillery

//ɑːˈtɪləɹi// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Large projectile weapons, in modern usage usually large guns, but also rocket artillery. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    large but transportable armament wordnet
  3. 3
    An army unit that uses such weapons, or a military formation using projectile weapons, such as archers. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a means of persuading or arguing wordnet
  5. 5
    Gunnery (design and manufacture of guns). countable, uncountable
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    an army unit that uses big guns wordnet
  2. 7
    Weapons, especially siege engines. archaic, countable, uncountable

    "And Ionathan gaue his artillery vnto his ladde, and said vnto him, Goe, cary them to the citie."

  3. 8
    One or more guns. Ireland, UK, countable, slang, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
archeryartillery unitbatterycannonelephantryflak

Example

More examples

"Recently my brother in law, artillery major Y, came back from a three year trip in Paris. Surrounded by a great number of souvenirs he had brought back, we heard tales of his travels."

Etymology

From Middle English artillerie, from Old French artillerie (“collection of military engines, crossbows, lances etc.”), from artillier (“to equip, provide with contraptions”), alteration of atiller (“to arrange, adjust, put on clothes or, especially, pieces of armour”) (influenced by art), itself from Vulgar Latin *apticlō < **apticulō, from Latin aptō (“to make capable”).

Related phrases

artillery fernartillery fungusartillery gameartillery loopartillery moldartillery plantartillery tubeartillery wheelfield artilleryheavy artilleryhorse artillerynuclear artillery

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.