Ballister

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A crossbow or ballista. obsolete

    "Their ramparts were armed with 3,000 ballisters to shoot javelins with and 500 catapults."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of baluster; a short pillar. alt-of, alternative

    "The choir, which is separated from the body of the church by a ballister, is darkned by the great number of escutcheons affixed to it ."

  3. 3
    A brace on a brass instrument that helps hold the valves in place.

    "Solid nickel silver ballisters and mouthpipe for longer wear, better tone, ease of blowing."

Synonyms

All synonyms
balustradebanisterbanisterbasecolonnadecolumn

Example

More examples

"Their ramparts were armed with 3,000 ballisters to shoot javelins with and 500 catapults."

Etymology

From Latin ballista. Compare balister.

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