Culverin

//ˈkʌlvəɹɪn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of a range of early gunpowder-fired guns of various sizes, from firearm to artillery.; A kind of handgun. historical
  2. 2
    a medieval musket wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of a range of early gunpowder-fired guns of various sizes, from firearm to artillery.; A large cannon. historical

    "Let Sacars, Culuerings, and Cannons ſound / In honour of their bones, and rock the ground / With all your deafning terrors: for behold / The Balſum for your wounds, are rich mens gold, / Powder the world with wonder, and thus crie, / The Camel now may paſſe the needles eie."

  4. 4
    a heavy cannon with a long barrel used in the 16th and 17th centuries wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
gunsix shooter

Example

More examples

"Let Sacars, Culuerings, and Cannons ſound / In honour of their bones, and rock the ground / With all your deafning terrors: for behold / The Balſum for your wounds, are rich mens gold, / Powder the world with wonder, and thus crie, / The Camel now may paſſe the needles eie."

Etymology

From Middle English culveryne, from Old French coulevrine, from couleuvre (“snake”) (or from Latin colubrīnus), ultimately from Latin colubra, coluber (“snake”). Doublet of colubrine.

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