gun-shot
(ˈgʌnʃɒt)
Forms: see gun n.; also 5 gonnes shott.
1. Shot fired from a gun or cannon; † also the shooting of guns. Now rare.
| 1471 Arriv. Edw. IV (Camden) 29 [They] were sore annoyed in the place where they were, as well with gonnes⁓shott as with shot of arrows. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 450 [He] assaylyd this sayde shyppe on euery parte & bette hir w{supt} gunneshot & hir men w{supt} hayle shot. 1497 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 104 Gonneshot of Iren..Ston..leed. 1530 Palsgr. 889 To expresse the sounde of gonne shotte, I fynde tip tap, sip sap. 1553 in Strype Eccl. Mem. III. App. iii. 5 And have solemnised the said proclamation with bonfires gunshots. 1563 T. Gale Antidot. Pref., When as I hadde finished my..Treatise of woundes made wyth Gonneshotte. 1607 Topsell Hist. Four-f. Beasts (1658) 383 Whensoever they are hunted with Dogs, they run directly to the woods or to the next trees, wherein they are killed by gun-shot. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 269 With shouting, singing, hallowing, gun-shot and fire-workes all that night. 1632 Sherwood, Gun-shot, arquebusade; canonnade. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xi. III. 39 Gun⁓shots were wildly fired in all directions. |
b. fig.
| 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utop. To P. Giles (1895) 10 Beynge..sauffe, and, as sayth the proverbe, out of all daunger of gonneshotte. 1575 Gascoigne Good Morrow 64 As with gonnes we kill the Crowe For spoyling our releefe, The Deuill so must we ouerthrowe, With gonshote of beleefe. 1577 T. Vautrollier Luther on Ep. Gal. 19 With such gun⁓shot and artillerie must the Papacie be destroyed. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 305 Being supported by the Popes authoritie, and armed with the gunneshotte of his excommunication. 1634 Wither Emblemes 112 The gunshot of a slanderous tongue may smite. |
c. Her. = pellet, ogress. (Cf. gunstone 2.)
| 1828 in Berry Encycl. Her. |
2. The range of a gun or cannon; the distance to which a shot can be effectively thrown from a gun. Chiefly out of gun-shot, within gunshot.
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 366/1 Prouiding alwai that your selfes y⊇ chief captaines..stand and loke vpon sure and safe a syde halfe out of al gunshot. 1540 Cranmer Bible Prol., They sytte farre from the strokes of battayll, and farre out of gonneshoute, and therfore they be but seldome wounded. 1631 Mabbe Celestina (1894) xi. 191 Hee is out of gun-shot, that rings the bell to the battell. 1676 S. Sewall Diary 1 July (1878) I. 14 Mr. Hezekiah Willet slain by the Naragansets, a little more than a Gun-shot off from his house. 1696 Lond. Gaz. No. 3219/2 On the 20th appeared..21 French Galleys.., who Anchored out of Gun Shot. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. v. 171 [They] perceived a light, which they chased, till they arrived within gun-shot. 1805 E. Berry in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. 117 note, The Three-decker was within gun-shot of us at day-break. 1845 James A. Neil vi, They were half across the Meadows, about half a gun-shot from the alders. 1879 Jefferies Amateur Poacher iii. 51 They [mallards] were always out of gunshot. |
† b. transf. and fig. within, out of, past, beyond (the) gunshot (of): within, beyond reach (of); within, out of the sphere of influence (of).
| 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. lxv. 77 Marching toward the copweb, within goon shot. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. xxxv. 8 They..feare nothing, as though they were quite out of all gonneshot. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. 76 They might haue..lyu'd out of gunshot of misery. 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus ii. 12 If he can..liue out of the gunshot of the lawe. 1642 Rogers Naaman 459 Set me beyond gun-shot of all corruptions. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. (1879) 81 You are not yet out of the gun-shot of the Devil. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. Pref. 1 Those who are come over to the Royal Party are consequently suppos'd to be out of Gunshot. |
¶ 3. A pistol.
| 1663 Butler Hud. i. ii. 776 With hasty rage he snatch'd His Gun-shot that in holsters watch'd. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as gunshot-distance, gun-shot-fracture, gun-shot-wound.
| 1672 Wiseman Wounds ii. 1 Great hath been the Contention amongst the Learned about fire and venom in Gun-shot-wounds. 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 227/1 Gun-shot wounds..are not often followed by hæmorrhage. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville (1849) 207 The rider..discovered an Indian fort within gunshot distance. 1842 Abdy Water Cure (1843) 109 His success in treating gun-shot wounds with cold water was most remarkable. 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 399 Gunshot fracture of the humerus. |