Definitions

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

  • noun A halberd with a long shaft and two-sided blade, carried by medieval foot soldiers.

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

  • noun weaponry A type of polearm having a spearhead and a reverse hooked spike on the back.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French guisarme, possibly from Old High German getīsarn : getan, to weed + īsarn, iron; see eis- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French guisarme

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Examples

  • Sibyll found the subalterns sterner than their chief; for as Warner offered to resist, one of them lifted his gisarme, with a frightful oath, and Sibyll was the first to persuade her father to submit.

    The Last of the Barons — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • Adam, when all the land around bristled with pike and gisarme, and while my own cousin and namesake, the head of my House, was winning laurels and wasting blood -- I, thy quarrelsome, fighting friend -- lived at home in peace with my wife and child (for I was now married, and wife and child were dear to me), and tilled my lands.

    The Last of the Barons — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • So, Adam, when all the land around bristled with pike and gisarme, and while my own cousin and namesake, the head of my House, was winning laurels and wasting blood -- I, thy quarrelsome, fighting friend -- lived at home in peace with my wife and child (for I was now married, and wife and child were dear to me), and tilled my lands.

    The Last of the Barons — Volume 03 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • Sibyll found the subalterns sterner than their chief; for as Warner offered to resist, one of them lifted his gisarme, with a frightful oath, and Sibyll was the first to persuade her father to submit.

    The Last of the Barons — Volume 09 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • If the retainer is not sliced and carved into mincemeat, he comes home to a heap of ashes, and a handful of acres, harried and rivelled into a common; Sir Knight thanks him for his valour, but he does not build up his house; Sir Knight gets a grant from the king, or an heiress for his son, and Hob Yeoman turns gisarme and bill into ploughshares.

    The Last of the Barons — Volume 01 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

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