Whitworth gun

English

Etymology

Invented by Sir Joseph Whitworth of Manchester, England.

Noun

Whitworth gun (plural Whitworth guns)

  1. A form of rifled cannon and small arms. The bore has a polygonal section, and the twist is rapid. The ball, which is pointed in front, is made to fit the bore accurately, and is very much elongated, its length being about three-and-a-half times its diameter.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of H. L. Scott to this entry?)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for Whitworth gun in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

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