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mortar

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Mortar is a bowl or machine used for grinding, a cannon or other shooting device or a mixture used in building for binding materials together.

(noun)

An example of mortar is a stone bowl that you would use with a pestle to grind seeds into a powder.
An example of a mortar is a weapon that fires explosives.
An example of mortar is what a stone mason would use when building a rock wall.

See mortar in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a very hard bowl in which softer substances are ground or pounded to a powder with a pestle
any machine in which materials are ground or pounded
Origin: Frmortier
a short-barreled cannon with a low muzzle velocity, which hurls shells in a high trajectory
any of various similar devices, for shooting lifelines, flares, etc.
Origin: ME morter < MFr mortier < L mortarium, a mixture of sand and lime: so called from the vessel in which it was made
a mixture of cement or lime with sand and water, used between bricks or stones to bind them together in building, or as plaster

Origin: ME mortere < OE mortere & OFr mortier, both < L mortarium, mixing vessel or trough < IE *mṛtos, pulverized < base *mer-, to rub: see morbid

transitive verb

to plaster or bind together with mortar
to attack with mortar shells

See mortar in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A vessel in which substances are crushed or ground with a pestle.
A machine in which materials are ground and blended or crushed.
a. A portable, muzzleloading cannon used to fire shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high trajectories.
b. Any of several similar devices, such as one that shoots life lines across a stretch of water.
Any of various bonding materials used in masonry, surfacing, and plastering, especially a plastic mixture of cement or lime, sand, and water that hardens in place and is used to bind together bricks or stones.

transitive verb mor·tared, mor·tar·ing, mor·tars