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Grapeshot   Listen
noun
Grapeshot  n.  (Mil.) A cluster, usually nine in number, of small iron balls, put together by means of cast-iron circular plates at top and bottom, with two rings, and a central connecting rod, in order to be used as a charge for a cannon. Formerly grapeshot were inclosed in canvas bags.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Grapeshot" Quotes from Famous Books



... cut-and-thrust of parliamentary debate and manoeuvre, as well as in his knowledge of the intricacies of procedure, Reed was a past master. He worsted his adversaries by turning the laugh on them, and his stinging retorts, which swept the House "like grapeshot," made him a powerful factor in ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley

... the Polish ranks. A shell burst between Kosciuszko, his aide-de-camp, Fiszer, and Niemcewicz, but left them unharmed. What Niemcewicz, who lived through it, describes as a hailstorm of bullets, grapeshot and shells, poured down upon the Polish lines. How any came out alive to tell the tale was to him a marvel. The dead lay in heaps. Not a Pole stirred from his post under this rain of fire. Each ...
— Kosciuszko - A Biography • Monica Mary Gardner

... infernally. Love and peace are the elements of heaven. Hatred and war are the elements of hell. Man, upon the battle-field, even in a good cause, must call to his aid the energies of the world of woe. Rushing squadrons swept the field, crushing beneath iron hoofs the dying and the dead. Grapeshot mowed down the crowded ranks, splintering bones, and lacerating nerves, and extorting shrieks of agony which even the thunders of the battle could not drown. Henry plunged into the thickest of the fight, every where ...
— Henry IV, Makers of History • John S. C. Abbott

... the genius of Napoleon General opinion of his character The greatness of his services Napoleon at Toulon His whiff of grapeshot His defence of the Directory Appointed to the army of Italy His rapid and brilliant victories Delivers France Campaign in Egypt Renewed disasters during his absence Made First Consul His beneficent rule as First Consul Internal improvements Restoration of law Vast ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume IX • John Lord

... of artillery looks on meditatively. His silent thought is sensed by a bystander who remarks: "I suppose, Napoleon, you think you could manage things better!" The man grins. But Napoleon Bonaparte—he who snuffed out Revolution later by whiff of grapeshot—nods gravely yes. ...
— Orphans of the Storm • Henry MacMahon

... Coburg, and, by the new and expensive tactics, defeated him at Wattignies on October 16. Carnot, who did not yet trust his generals, arrived in time to win the day by overruling Jourdan and his staff. And every French child knows how he led the charge through the grapeshot, on foot, with his hat at the end of his sword. From that day to the peace of Bale he held the army in his grasp. He had stopped the invasion. No one in the allied camp spoke any more of the shortest road to Paris; but they still held the places they had ...
— Lectures on the French Revolution • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... or weak, it was strengthened by a wall of stone, or a house which served as a redoubt, or even an oaken stockade. The garrison was strong and aware of the importance of their position. The Zaporozhtzi attacked the wall fiercely, but were met with a shower of grapeshot. The citizens and residents of the town evidently did not wish to remain idle, but gathered on the ramparts; in their eyes could be read desperate resistance. The women too were determined to take part in the fray, and upon the heads of the Zaporozhians ...
— Taras Bulba and Other Tales • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

... shortly afterward they were again arrested by a German brigade, which forced them to march in front of them to Malines. Answering a question on the part of one of the prisoners, a German officer told them that they were going to taste some of the Belgian grapeshot before Antwerp. At last they were liberated on Thursday afternoon at the entrance ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2 - Who Began the War, and Why? • Various

... never forgiven either the Dagos or the diplomatists, especially as the concession had eventually gone to a German firm, which had made a clear half-million out of it; and he argued, not without reason, that the most effective form of negotiation would have been a whiff of grapeshot, or its modern equivalent, from the guns of ...
— People of Position • Stanley Portal Hyatt

... What a host of admirers crowded around him! What an honor and privilege to be standing in the presence, and even pressing the hand or rushing into the embrace, of an officer who had really seen bayonet-charges and heard the whistling of grapeshot! How the older ones monopolized the distinguished visitor, and how the little boys crowded the outer circle to catch a word from the military oracle, proudly happy if they could get a distant nod of recognition! And then the questions which were showered ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 6, April, 1858 • Various

... for preventing the enemy from taking advantage of our present wretched circumstances, of which they would be sufficiently informed by the manner of our working the ship. We therefore mustered all our hands who were capable of standing to their arms and loaded our upper and quarter-deck guns with grapeshot, and that we might the more readily procure some intelligence of the state of these islands, we showed Spanish colours and hoisted a red flag at the foretop masthead, to give our ship the appearance of the Manila galleon, hoping thereby to decoy some of ...
— Anson's Voyage Round the World - The Text Reduced • Richard Walter

... in vain to try to carry the rampart by the bayonet. The soldiers drew up and fired all along their line; but of what avail was it to fire upon an enemy they could not see, whilst they themselves were a target for the grapeshot and musketballs which swept in a deadly cross fire through their ranks? But they would not fall back. Headed by the Rangers, who made rapid way over the rough and encumbered ground, they pressed on, undaunted by the hail of iron about them, and inflamed to fury by the ...
— French and English - A Story of the Struggle in America • Evelyn Everett-Green

... is like a rifle bullet fired straight at a mark; according to Darwin, organisms are like grapeshot of which one hits something and the ...
— Lectures and Essays • T.H. Huxley



Words linked to "Grapeshot" :   grape, shot



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