blunderbuss
noun
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Definition of blunderbuss
1 : a muzzle-loading firearm with a short barrel and flaring muzzle to facilitate loading
2 : a blundering person
Illustration of blunderbuss
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Synonyms for blunderbuss
Synonyms
blunderer, botcher, bumbler, bungler, butcher, fumbler, screwup
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Examples of blunderbuss in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
It had been fired out of a gravitational gun barrel by a cosmic blunderbuss, a supermassive black hole. — Dennis Overbye, New York Times, "It Came From a Black Hole, and Landed in Antarctica," 12 July 2018 The Senate this week will debate a bipartisan bill that would relax some of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law’s blunderbuss regulations. — The Editorial Board, WSJ, "Warren Democrats for Wall Street," 5 Mar. 2018 Over the past two and a half years, Trump blasted away at the lazy conventional wisdom on immigration with a blunderbuss; getting something to show for it legislatively will now require some deftness and guile. — Rich Lowry, National Review, "Durbin-Graham Is the Problem, Not the Solution," 26 Jan. 2018 The Nevada State Museum, just a few blocks from the capitol in Carson City, has an extensive firearms collection on display, everything from blunderbusses to Gatling guns. — Christopher Palmeri, Bloomberg.com, "Gun-Culture Tourism Thrives in Las Vegas," 4 Oct. 2017 There were Nazis on the moon, time-traveling blunderbusses, Mandingoes, and for the love of John Carter, a vampire throwing a horse at Abraham Lincoln. — Ruth Suehle, WIRED, "Can 2013 Beat The Amazing Year of Movies That Was 2012?," 4 Jan. 2013These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'blunderbuss.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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From the Editors at Merriam-Webster
10 English Words from Dutch
10 English Words from Dutch
'Dope', 'hustle', 'kink', and 7 more
Dictionary Entries near blunderbuss
Statistics for blunderbuss
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Time Traveler for blunderbuss
The first known use of blunderbuss was in 1654
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More Definitions for blunderbuss
blunderbuss
noun
English Language Learners Definition of blunderbuss
: an old-fashioned kind of gun with a wide opening at the end
See the full definition for blunderbuss in the English Language Learners Dictionary
blunderbuss
noun
\
Kids Definition of blunderbuss
: a short gun that has a barrel which is larger at the end and that was used long ago for shooting at close range without taking exact aim
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