ˈwall-piece
1. Mil. (See quot. 1876.)
| 1755 R. Rogers Jrnls. (1769) 5, I embarked..with a party of thirty men, in four battoes, mounted with two wall-pieces each. 1774 Ann. Reg. 244 We..at proper intervals kept firing our wall-pieces, as signals to the cutter. 1798 Hull Advertiser 29 Sept. 1/4 The vessel..mounting twelve eighteen pounders..twelve long wall-pieces, and four swivels. 1804 Naval Chron. XII. 381 On the taffrel were two large wall⁓pieces,..loaded..with musket balls. 1826 Scott Woodst. xvii, The malignants shooting their wall-pieces at us, had so much the advantage, that [etc.]. 1860 J. Hewitt Anc. Armour III. 748 The various fire-arms in use at the close of this [17th] century are enumerated..by St.-Remy. There were wall-pieces (mousquets de rempart), both match and flint lock:..the match-lock musquet [etc.]. 1876 Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), Wall-piece, an enlarged firelock or firearm mounted on a swivel, and placed on the walls of a fort or other fortified place. It may be said to be obsolete, though sometimes issued in India to an expedition proceeding on service. 1884 Milit. Engin. I. ii. 115 Machine guns and wall-pieces (the latter being of great advantage when the besieger has to resort to sapping) should also form part of the armament. |
2. Arch. A pendant or pendant-post.
| 1860 R. & J. A. Brandon Open Timber Roofs 26 The wall-piece is tenoned into the underside of the principal rafter. 1880 Archæol. Cant. XIII. 435 The stone corbels which support the wall-pieces. |