Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Projectiles, such as bullets and shot, together with their fuses and primers, that can be fired from guns or otherwise propelled.
  • noun Nuclear, biological, chemical, or explosive materials, such as rockets or grenades, that are used as weapons.
  • noun Objects used as missiles in offense or defense.
  • noun A means of attacking or defending an argument, thesis, or point of view.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To supply with ammunition.
  • noun Military stores or provisions for attack or defense; in modern usage, only the materials which are used in the discharge of firearms and ordnance of all kinds, as powder, balls, bombs, various kinds of shot, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To provide with ammunition.
  • noun obsolete Military stores, or provisions of all kinds for attack or defense.
  • noun Articles used in charging firearms and ordnance of all kinds; as powder, balls, shot, shells, percussion caps, rockets, etc.
  • noun Any stock of missiles, literal or figurative.
  • noun [Eng.] such as are contracted for by government, and supplied to the soldiers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Articles used in charging firearms and ordnance of all kinds; as powder, balls, shot, shells, percussion caps, rockets, etc.
  • noun Any stock of missiles, literal or figurative.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any nuclear or chemical or biological material that can be used as a weapon of mass destruction
  • noun information that can be used to attack or defend a claim or argument or viewpoint
  • noun projectiles to be fired from a gun

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Obsolete French amunition, from l'amunition, the provisioning, alteration of la munition, from Old French, from Latin mūnītiō, mūnītiōn-, fortification; see munition.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French amunition, for munition, probably caused by taking "la munition" as "l'amunition". See munition.

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Examples

  • Giannoulis will recover and then the ammunition is already spent.

    The NRSC wastes *no* time on properly greeting Giannoulias. | RedState 2010

  • Nobody can sell any ammunition after June 30, 2009 unless the ammunition is coded.

    Halt on sale of Ammunition by June 30 2009? 2009

  • Seems like magazines like Field and Stream could have an article explaining that rumors ammunition is going to be all snatched up by the Feds is just stupid urban legend.

    disapearing ammo 2009

  • A scoped in-line that differs from a Ruger No. 1 single shot rifle only in which end of the barrel the assembled ammunition is loaded is certainly not primitive and is a muzzleloader in name only.

    old tradional muzzelloaders or the new inlines 2009

  • Seems like magazines like Field and Stream could have an article explaining that rumors ammunition is going to be all snatched up by the Feds is just stupid urban legend.

    disapearing ammo 2009

  • Non-toxic ammunition is so good now that we have loads that can kill birds farther away than most of us can hit them.

    Long-Range Shotgunning 2009

  • A variety of ammunition is available to suit just about every survival need, to include 180 grain hard cast bullets.

    What's the Best Survival Weapon? 2009

  • A scoped in-line that differs from a Ruger No. 1 single shot rifle only in which end of the barrel the assembled ammunition is loaded is certainly not primitive and is a muzzleloader in name only.

    old tradional muzzelloaders or the new inlines 2009

  • A variety of ammunition is available to suit just about every survival need, to include 180 grain hard cast bullets.

    What's the Best Survival Weapon? 2009

  • Nobody can sell any ammunition after June 30, 2009 unless the ammunition is coded.

    disapearing ammo 2009

Comments

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  • A sock, apparently; citation on ganzey. This sense isn't in the O.E.D., but it does mention ammunition-boots, footwear supplied as part of soldiers' kit, so maybe there's a connection.

    March 21, 2009