coehorn, cohorn Mil.
(ˈkəʊhɔːn)
[f. the name of Coehorn ((ˈkuhorn), i.e. cow-horn), the Dutch military engineer.]
A small mortar for throwing grenades, introduced by Baron Coehorn. In full, coehorn mortar.
| 1705 Lond. Gaz. No. 4104/2 The 30 Coehorn Mortars.. did much damage. 1712 E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 144 Hurt with one of our Grenado-Shels, which broke in the Bark, when fir'd out of the Cohorne. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xxxii, The battery..strengthened by two mortars and twenty-four cohorns. 1806 A. Duncan Nelson 48 The Mahonesa, of 34 guns, besides cohorns and swivels. 1853 Stocqueler Mil. Encycl. s.v., Four inches two-fifths is the calibre of the British coehorn. |
b. attrib.
| 1746 in Naval Chron. (1799) I. 5 He..threw some cohorn shells. 1765 R. Jones Fireworks iv. 107 For a coehorn balloon, let the diameter of the fuze hole be seven-eighths of an inch. 1790 Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 383 The ship had been three times set on fire by the cohorn shells. |