Illustration of crossbow
: a weapon for shooting quarrels and stones that consists chiefly of a short bow mounted crosswise near the end of a stock
Examples of crossbow in a Sentence
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The nest hoards of bearded vultures in southern Spain, where the species is extinct, were found to harbor such human artifacts as a crossbow bolt, a slingshot, a wooden lance, and a shoe with an approximate age of 675 years.
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Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harpers Magazine, 23 Nov. 2025
It was set up with a pulley system and a trip wire that would fire the crossbow when a deer’s leg tripped it.
—David Zeug, Outdoor Life, 29 Oct. 2025
French kings were aware of the relative merits of the longbow compared with the crossbow after their infamous defeat in the 1346 Battle of Crécy.
—Foreign Affairs, 21 Oct. 2025
The wedding held at the family estate concludes with a ritualized family initiation—a deadly round of hide and seek with the family hunting Grace with guns, crossbows, axes, and the like.
—Emma Specter, Vogue, 19 Oct. 2025
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Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harpers Magazine, 23 Nov. 2025
It was set up with a pulley system and a trip wire that would fire the crossbow when a deer’s leg tripped it.
—David Zeug, Outdoor Life, 29 Oct. 2025
French kings were aware of the relative merits of the longbow compared with the crossbow after their infamous defeat in the 1346 Battle of Crécy.
—Foreign Affairs, 21 Oct. 2025
The wedding held at the family estate concludes with a ritualized family initiation—a deadly round of hide and seek with the family hunting Grace with guns, crossbows, axes, and the like.
—Emma Specter, Vogue, 19 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for crossbow
Cite this Entry
“Crossbow.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crossbow. Accessed 5 Dec. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
crossbow
noun
cross·bow
-ˌbō 
: a short bow mounted crosswise near the end of a wooden stock that shoots short arrows
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