ˈsmooth-bore
Also smoothbore, smooth bore.
[f. smooth a. + bore n.1]
1. A cannon or gun of which the barrel is made with a smooth or unrifled bore.
In quot. 1848 with punning allusion to bore n.2
| 1812 Niles' Weekly Reg. II. 398/1 It was the best smooth bore he ever shot with in his life. 1834 W. A. Caruthers Kentuckians in N.Y. I. 21 Your smooth bores waste a deal of powder and lead. 1848 Lowell Fable for Critics 1229 I divide bores myself, in the manner of rifles Into two great divisions..;—There's your smooth-bore and screw-bore [etc.]. 1859 ‘Stonehenge’ Shot Gun 306 A ball from a smooth bore (that is, from a barrel not rifled in any way). 1897 Century Mag. Aug. 587 A powerful double-turreted monitor, carrying two 18-inch smooth-bores. |
| fig. 1883 Payn Thicker than Water xxiii, One thought expelling another in the narrow smoothbore of her mind. |
2. attrib. a. Having a smooth or unrifled bore.
| 1799 in Deb. Congress U.S. (1851) 7th Congress 2 Sess., App. 1402 One had a rifle, and the other a smooth-bore piece. 1859 Musketry Instr. 31 During the passage of the spherical ball through the smooth-bore barrel. 1860 Tennent Story Guns (1864) 228 These trials were made with the old smooth-bore cannon. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 65 For many years the arm of the British soldier was a smooth⁓bore musket. |
b. Adapted for guns having a smooth bore.
| 1859 F. A. Griffiths Artill. Man. (1862) 203 Smooth-bore projectiles. |
Hence
ˈsmooth-bored a.,
= prec. 2 a.
| 1859 F. A. Griffiths Artill. Man. (1862) 203 Smooth-bored guns. 1890 Nature 18 Sept., At short distances..the smooth⁓bored guns were reasonably accurate. |