Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Military materiel, such as weapons, ammunition, combat vehicles, and equipment.
- noun The branch of an armed force that procures, maintains, and issues weapons, ammunition, and combat vehicles.
- noun Cannon; artillery.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Cannon or great guns collectively, including mortars and howitzers; artillery.
- noun A board composed of United States ordnance-officers distinguished for their attainments in the theory and practice of heavy ordnance, its construction and use, whose duty it is to conduct experiments, and test and report upon all ordnance subjects referred to it by the chief of ordnance. This board is designated by the Secretary of War, and is advisory to the chief of ordnance of the army.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Heavy weapons of warfare; cannon, or great guns, mortars, and howitzers; artillery; sometimes, a general term for all weapons, ammunitiion, and appliances used in war.
- noun the official survey of Great Britain and Ireland, conducted by the ordnance department.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
military equipment, especiallyweapons andammunition . - noun
artillery .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun military supplies
- noun large but transportable armament
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Col. Hauck, who developed an expertise in ordnance, was a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Obituary: Wayne O. Hauck, Army colonel and owner of financial services firm, dies at 84 Post 2010
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As in apparently the large amount of expended depleted uranium ordnance is having a very bad effect on the health of Afghanis.
Light the blue touchpaper and retire to a safe distance 2008
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The calibre, if you are using Western ordnance, is and has been for decades, 155mm, as can be seen from Reuter's "picture of the month".
Conflicting signals Richard 2006
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Use of WP in built up civilian areas would have been deliberate given that alternative smoke-generating ordnance is available.
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Use of WP in built up civilian areas would have been deliberate given that alternative smoke-generating ordnance is available.
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What will be different in this test-fire is the mesh pattern produced when the bullet passes through the window screen before ripping through the Harley jacket and buzz-sawing a swath through the chest of Mr. Jell-O, as he calls his ordnance-gelatin test dummies.
Predator Cornwell, Patricia 2005
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"They must have ordnance -- that's the English word, isn't it --"
Freedoms Challenge McCaffrey, Anne 1998
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Perhaps the opposite table will give a fair idea of the changes in English ordnance during the eighteenth century.
Artillery Through the Ages A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America Albert Manucy
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The sprawling army ordnance community—known as the ordnance corps—was a network of arsenals, laboratories, and far-flung commands that together had evolved into an empire within the armed services, replete with its own biases and mores.
The Gun C. J. Chivers 2010
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Nobody wanted to face the three-hour flight back to Kuwait with packages undelivered — it made the flight longer and burned fuel like crazy; and to face the crew that had worked like dogs to ready the aircraft, load the bombs, and paint love notes to Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar on the ordnance was a full-bore bummer.
The Kabul-ki Dance 2002
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