What does "battlecruiser" mean?

A fast warship with thicker armor and heavier guns than a typical cruiser, but with armor, armament, or both still inferior to that of a dreadnought battleship; designed to act as an advanced scout of the battle fleet and to destroy enemy cruisers.

What is a synonym for "battlecruiser"?

Common synonyms include: battle cruiser, cruiser-killer, large cruiser, supercruiser.

Battlecruiser

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1
A fast warship with thicker armor and heavier guns than a typical cruiser, but with armor, armament, or both still inferior to that of a dreadnought battleship; designed to act as an advanced scout of the battle fleet and to destroy enemy cruisers.
"US Navy hull classification symbol: CC (Only used for the cancelled Lexington-class)"
2
A warship of intermediate size and/or capability between a heavy cruiser and a (light) battleship.
3
A boozer; a public house. Cockney, slang
"So he'd effectively had to learn a new language; no longer would he order a pint at the 'battle cruiser' […]"

Synonyms

All synonyms

battle cruiser cruiser-killer large cruiser supercruiser

Example

More examples

"US Navy hull classification symbol: CC (Only used for the cancelled Lexington-class)"

Etymology

Blend of battleship + cruiser, from being a cruiser-like ship with battleship-like capabilities and possibly operating in the battleline.

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