Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A battleship armed with six or more guns having calibers of 12 inches or more.
- noun A type of acoustic guitar with a larger body and louder sound than typical of most guitars.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A British battleship, completed in 1906 -- 1907, having an armament consisting of ten 12-inch guns mounted in turrets, and of twenty-four 12-pound quick-fire guns for protection against torpedo boats. This was the first battleship of the type characterized by a main armament of big guns all of the same caliber. She had a displacement of 17,900 tons at load draft, and a speed of 21 knots per hour.
- noun Any battleship having its main armament entirely of big guns all of one caliber. Since the Dreadnought was built, the caliber of the heaviest guns has increased from 12 in. to 131/2 in., 14 in., and 15 in., and the displacement of the largest batteships from 18,000 tons to 30,000 tons and upwards. The term
superdreadnought is popularly applied to battleships with such increased displacement and gun caliber.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a
battleship , especially of theWorld War I era, in which most of the firepower is concentrated in large guns that are of the same caliber. - noun informal a type of warship heavier in armour or armament than a typical battleship
- noun One that is the largest or the
most powerful of its kind. - noun A
garment made of thick woollencloth that can defend against storm and cold. - noun The cloth itself;
fearnaught .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun battleship that has big guns all of the same caliber
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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And in his who's who entry, he lists as one of his interests, the British admiral, the Naval admiral, Jackie Fisher, and he was an admiral in the 1900s and he was the first one to commission this giant warship called the dreadnought, a massive, great big battleship.
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The "dreadnought" body style was one of these triumphs; it included a larger, deeper body that provided more volume and bass resonance.
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They proved to be the three Kentucky hunters, of the true "dreadnought" stamp.
Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains 1836
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Kentucky hunters, of the true "dreadnought" stamp.
Astoria, or, anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains Washington Irving 1821
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I love the pre-dreadnought era of naval history, with its giant flaring brass ventilator shafts, underpowered guns, white paint and coal funnels.
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It appears that the director made use of actual WW2 era (American?) destroyers and added some smoke stacks and flying bridges to them – to simulate Japanese pre-dreadnought ships.
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Since the 1950s, Mr. Adiga writes, Vishram has stood as a "dreadnought of middle-class respectability" amid the slums and swamplands of northern Mumbai.
Quixotic Obstinance, Quicksilver Memory Sam Sacks 2011
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I love the pre-dreadnought era of naval history, with its giant flaring brass ventilator shafts, underpowered guns, white paint and coal funnels.
HMVS Cerberus, for *free* on the Paper Shipwright « Third Point of Singularity 2010
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Hiatt's eponymous Gibson dreadnought buzzed and untuned itself throughout the two-hour performance, which added a rock-and-roll edge to the unplugged affair.
In concert: Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt at the Birchmere Dave McKenna 2011
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"The Spy" by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott is a wonderfully written and historically fascinating espionage novel set in pre-World War I America, in which our hero, Isaac Bell a characteristically brilliant and strong Yale man, stops a slew of Japanese, German and English spies who are trying to break America's secret program to build the most powerful dreadnought battleships and control the world's waters.
chained_bear commented on the word dreadnought
New '59 Cadillac Dreadnought! ... features 12-foot bar, spacious den... --Our Dumb Century, the Onion
(I'm paraphrasing from memory)
December 8, 2007
yarb commented on the word dreadnought
This word makes me want to go "RAAAAAA!"
February 14, 2008
reesetee commented on the word dreadnought
Do tell, yarb!
February 14, 2008
yarb commented on the word dreadnought
I don't know why, rt. There's no story. I just think it's a dreadful, awesome word, evocative of carnage and havoc.
February 14, 2008
reesetee commented on the word dreadnought
Very true. And yet I can't help but think of it with amusement now that it's become one of my "Bigger SUV" names. :-)
February 14, 2008
skipvia commented on the word dreadnought
This word has a very different connotation to a guitar player. It's the standard shape of most modern acoustic guitars, having been designed by the Martin company in 1931.
February 14, 2008
reesetee commented on the word dreadnought
Interesting, skipvia! Was it named after the British battleship, do you know?
February 14, 2008
skipvia commented on the word dreadnought
I don't really know, c_b. I can't find any evidence one way or the other. The dreadnought shape was larger than the then-predominant parlor guitar shape and it was much louder and clearer than previous shapes, so perhaps there is a connection there.
February 14, 2008
reesetee commented on the word dreadnought
That was me, skipvia. :-) But thanks. I poked around a bit and found a good definition here. It's also a nice guitar-related glossary. :-)
February 14, 2008
skipvia commented on the word dreadnought
Sorry, reesette. This senility thing is rough. Thanks for the information--it makes sense that there was a connection. Nice glossary, too.
February 15, 2008
reesetee commented on the word dreadnought
Hey, getting old ain't for sissies. :-)
February 15, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word dreadnought
"It was a hard life, but he made it to the end."
February 15, 2008
treeseed commented on the word dreadnought
See Hummingbird
February 17, 2008
halcyon commented on the word dreadnought
I don't suppose anyone else listed this one out of fond memories of the overwhelming wonder that was the Phyrexian Dreadnought?
March 17, 2008