artillery
nounUK /ɑːˈtɪləɹi/ · US /ɑɹˈtɪləɹi/
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”).
1
Large projectile weapons, in modern usage usually large guns, but also rocket artillery.
2
An army unit that uses such weapons, or a military formation using projectile weapons, such as archers.
3
Gunnery (design and manufacture of guns).
4
Archaic Weapons, especially siege engines.
- And Ionathan gaue his artillery vnto his ladde, and said vnto him, Goe, cary them to the citie.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 20:40:
- The old walls […] were surely strong enough to keep out men without battering-rams, balistas, or artillery of any kind. [Footnote] Artillery is here used in its old English meaning for any kind of warlike engine. Cf. I Sam. XX. 40.1866, Charles Kingsley, chapter 24, in Hereward the Wake, London: Nelson, page 330:
- Derived terms
- antiartillery, artillator, artillerist, artillery fern, artillery fungus, artillery game, artillery loop, artilleryman, artillery mold, artillery plant, artillery tube, artillery wheel, artillerywoman, counterartillery, field artillery, heavy artillery, horse artillery, nonartillery, nuclear artillery, rocket artillery, tube artillery