Definitions

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

  • noun Plural form of Brown Bess.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The smooth-bore muskets used during colonial, revolutionary, and frontier days were known as Brown Besses, hence the nickname Betsy. cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey Before you cancel your subscription, please read on.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XV No 1 1988

  • The seven years during which Senhor Habitas had made Brown Besses for Tower Arms had earned him enough to retire in style, but no one who loved his craft as much as Tomas Habitas did would voluntarily retire.

    Morgan’s Run Colleen McCullough 2000

  • The ten Brown Besses that Richard had made were standing in a rack, fetched there by the ten-year-old lad whom Habitas employed as a menial.

    Morgan’s Run Colleen McCullough 2000

  • The ten Brown Besses that Richard had made were standing in a rack, fetched there by the ten-year-old lad whom Habitas employed as a menial.

    Morgan’s Run Colleen McCullough 2000

  • He knew that there was a strong likelihood that only one in four of the Brown Besses he made would ever be fired in combat.

    Morgan’s Run Colleen McCullough 2000

  • He knew that there was a strong likelihood that only one in four of the Brown Besses he made would ever be fired in combat.

    Morgan’s Run Colleen McCullough 2000

  • The seven years during which Senhor Habitas had made Brown Besses for Tower Arms had earned him enough to retire in style, but no one who loved his craft as much as Tomas Habitas did would voluntarily retire.

    Morgan’s Run Colleen McCullough 2000

  • Dealing with pretty pistols—he is an honest man, this one, and offered up his own possessions for sacrifice in case I was ham-fisted—dealing with pretty pistols is all very well, but I have to break down, clean and reassemble about two hundred Brown Besses, if not more.

    Morgan’s Run Colleen McCullough 2000

  • Dealing with pretty pistols—he is an honest man, this one, and offered up his own possessions for sacrifice in case I was ham-fisted—dealing with pretty pistols is all very well, but I have to break down, clean and reassemble about two hundred Brown Besses, if not more.

    Morgan’s Run Colleen McCullough 2000

  • They are not like the line regiments with their common Brown Besses.

    !Tention A Story of Boy-Life during the Peninsular War George Manville Fenn 1870

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