noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A large capital warship displacing thousands to tens of thousands of tons, heavily armoured and armed with large-caliber guns; now obsolescent and replaced by smaller vessels with guided missiles.
2. 2
   large and heavily armoured warship wordnet
3. 3
   A large capital warship displacing thousands to tens of thousands of tons, heavily armoured and armed with large-caliber guns; now obsolescent and replaced by smaller vessels with guided missiles.; A starship of comparable role broadly
4. 4
   A ship of the line. archaic
5. 5
   A non-functional rocket stage, used for configuration and integration tests.

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6. 6
   A guessing game played on grid paper; see Battleship (game).

Synonyms

All synonyms

battle shipbattlewagoncancruiserdestroyervessel

Example

More examples

"It took many torpedo hits to send the battleship Bismarck to Davy Jones's locker."

Etymology

From battle + ship; shortened from line-of-battle ship, attested 1794.

Related phrases

battleship curvebattleship graybattleship greybattleship-graybattleship-greybattleship-shaped curvefast battleshipheavy battleshipland battleshiplight battleshippocket battleshipsuper battleship

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