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artillery Definition

ar·til·lery (är til′ər ē)

noun

  1. Archaic apparatus, as catapults or arbalests, for hurling heavy missiles
  2. guns of large caliber, too heavy to carry; mounted guns (excluding machine guns), as cannon or missile launchers: artillery may be mobile, stationary, or mounted on ships, airplanes, etc.
  3. the science of guns; gunnery

Etymology: ME < OFr artillerie < artillier (prob. altered by assoc. with arte, art) < atillier, to equip; dissimilated var. of atirier: see attire

artillery Related Forms
ar·til′·lery·man (-mən) noun pl. -·men-mən or ar·til′·ler·ist-ər ist
artillery Idioms

the artillery

the branch of an army specializing in the use of heavy mounted guns

artillery Synonyms

artillery

n.

  1. Heavy ordnance

    gunnery, ordnance, mounted guns, cannons, missile launchers; see also cannon, munitions.

  2. The branch of the service that mans artillery, sense 1

    gun crew, field battery, field artillery, motorized units, antiaircraft units, armored force.

artillery Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • fire: Their brigade artillery fired on the German trenches with orders to land a shell every twenty yards.
  • pound: Allied artillery pounded German lines for a week beforehand, firing 1.6million shells.

Adjective modifier

  • long-range: Seoul, near the border, is vulnerable to long-range artillery.
  • divisional: With four artillery battalions under a divisional artillery HQ element, you basically had a regiment anyway!
  • heavy: For example his four fire missions of heavy artillery didn't managed to affect any of my stands!
  • Serb: NATO launched its air strikes in early September following the shelling of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serb artillery.
  • German: German medium artillery shelled the area during the relief.
  • coastal: Coastal artillery was already controlled from a plotting room inside the fort.

Modifies a noun

  • barrage: On July 18th 1917, a heavy artillery barrage was launched at the German lines.
  • bombardment: To pre-empt the attack, the Russians launched a massive artillery bombardment at 02.00 on July 5 th.
  • shell: During the bombing of Pearl Harbor a stray artillery shell exploded in a room full of students.
  • spammage: An alternative way to reduce the amount of artillery spammage could be to increase the time needed to recharge the Field Op's bar.
  • regiment: On the 1st of May 1849 he was promoted to Leutnant in the 5th artillery regiment taking over command of a battery.
  • fortification: He chose for its site an area in which English troops had built an artillery fortification during their occupation of the area in 1548.

Noun used with modifier

  • antiaircraft: Both locations have a history of Iraqi antiaircraft artillery firing on coalition jets.
  • antiaircraft: American antiaircraft artillery met the challenge by destroying more than 300 enemy aircraft.
  • anti-tank: These forts used anti-tank artillery and rifles to halt the tanks and machine gun fire to annihilate the accompanying infantry.
  • fortress: This could lend weight to the idea that the French Army had maintained some of the fortress artillery in the fifties.
  • siege: They were mounted on ships and used as coastal batteries and also siege artillery.
  • enemy: There was practically no enemy artillery fire; only an occasional shell from a long distance.
artillery Quotes

Expressive glances Shall be our lances And pops of Sillery Our light artillery.

—Gilbert, Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck)

Whenpolitical ammunitionrunslow, inevitably therusty artillery of abuse is wheeled into action.

—Stevenson, Adlai E(wing)

Th'artillery of words.

—Swift,Jonathan