arquebus
noun
ar·que·bus
ˈär-kwi-(ˌ)bəs 
-kə-bəs
variant of harquebus
: a matchlock gun invented in the 15th century which was portable but heavy and was usually fired from a support
Examples of arquebus in a Sentence
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Beretta traces its history to 1526, when Bartolomeo Beretta (d. 1565), a rifle barrel maker in the small northern Italian town of Gardone, sold 185 arquebus barrels—a handheld long gun and a forerunner to the modern rifle—to the Republic of Venice.
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Giacomo Tognini, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2025
The worshipers insisted on congregating to pray at the crucifix in the local church and threatened to shoot with an arquebus – a long gun used during the Renaissance period – anyone who got in their way.
—Hannah Marcus, The Conversation, 25 Sep. 2020
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Giacomo Tognini, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2025
The worshipers insisted on congregating to pray at the crucifix in the local church and threatened to shoot with an arquebus – a long gun used during the Renaissance period – anyone who got in their way.
—Hannah Marcus, The Conversation, 25 Sep. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Arquebus.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arquebus. Accessed 5 May. 2025.
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