Definitions

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

  • noun A military machine used during the Middle Ages for hurling stones and other missiles, often employing a wooden arm with a container at one end.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A military engine formerly used for throwing stones, etc.

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

  • noun A military engine formerly used for throwing stones and javelins.

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

  • noun A military engine formerly used for throwing stones and burning objects.

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

  • noun an engine that provided medieval artillery used during sieges; a heavy war engine for hurling large stones and other missiles

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin mangonellus, diminutive of Late Latin manganum, catapult, from Greek manganon, war machine.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French mangonel, from Latin manganellus, manganum, from Ancient Greek μάγγανον.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word mangonel.

Examples

  • The besiegers on the ridge took the opportunity to run their heaviest mangonel forward clear of the trees, and let loose all the heaviest stones and cases of iron rubble at the defences, raising their aim to pound incessantly at the timber brattice, more vulnerable by far than the solid masonry of the wall.

    A River So Long 2010

  • A great length of the brattice is in splinters, we nearly lost a mangonel over the edge when the parapet went, but we managed to haul it in over the embrasure.

    A River So Long 2010

  • Protectionism is such a political dead duck here that it would provide a very useful piece of ammunition for the Eurosceptic mangonel.

    Bantamweight Fight Fest 2008

  • Protectionism is such a political dead duck here that it would provide a very useful piece of ammunition for the Eurosceptic mangonel.

    Archive 2008-06-29 2008

  • I hope Santa will bring me a bushmaster carbon-series A3 .243 AR-15 with a 20 '' barrel, birdcage suppressor and backup mangonel iron sights.

    Suggestions for Santa 2008

  • I joined the drivers and the guards near the mangonel that we would be riding down.

    Archive 2009-01-01 2009

  • September 25, 2009 at 5:49 pm hmmm… time to run some tests with the mangonel.

    Got a Question? I’ve Got an Answer (maybe) 2009

  • I joined the drivers and the guards near the mangonel that we would be riding down.

    abandoned prose... 2009

  • Bethink you that your illness mars the mainspring of their enterprise; a mangonel will work without screw and lever better than the Christian host without King

    The Talisman 2008

  • Also interesting is the mangonel which uses tensiont on a rope wound at the base of the throwing arm to launch the projectile.

    A Couple of Funny Shows Peter 2004

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "Mustapha swore that the Christians had only two guns, old and honeycombed, and some mangonels, but that even if they had a dozen he should still carry out his attack..."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, 317

    February 14, 2008