battering-ram
[f. battering vbl. n. + ram. Cf. L. aries ram, battering-ram.]
1. An ancient military engine employed for battering down walls, consisting of a beam of wood, with a mass of iron at one end, sometimes in the form of a ram's head; (also fig.).
| 1611 Bible Ezek. iv. 2 Set battering rams against it round about [cf. Coverdale Ezek. xxi. 22 Batell-rammes]. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. xiv. 330 The battering-rams had shaken the walls in several places. 1818 Bentham Ch. Eng. 55 In the hands of Lancaster..the Bible..worked as a battering-ram against the Established Church. 1840 Thirlwall Greece VII. lix. 344 Battering-rams, each 150 feet long. |
2. transf. A blacksmith's hammer suspended and worked horizontally.
| 1864 in Webster. |