Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A powderflask made of horn, usually the horn of an ox or cow, the larger end fitted with a wooden or metal bottom, and the small end with a movable stopper or some special device for measuring out a charge of powder.

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

  • noun A horn in which gunpowder is carried.

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

  • noun A horn in which gunpowder is carried.

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

  • noun container for carrying gunpowder; made of the hollow horn of an animal

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

powder +‎ horn

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Examples

  • He's making me a powder measure out of a warthog tusk and customizing my powderhorn right now.

    The Mysterious Case of the Shrinking Elk Head 2008

  • They just recast them all with a powderhorn and musket, spouting good old American values.

    Archive 2005-12-01 David 2005

  • They just recast them all with a powderhorn and musket, spouting good old American values.

    Give me liberty David 2005

  • He poured it into the little charge-cup that hung from the bottom of his powderhorn, then down his musket barrel it went.

    A different flesh Turtledove, Harry 1988

  • Officers Carl Delevan and George O'Mearah had finished their coffee and were about to move on when the man in the blue suit came out of Clements'-which both cops believed to be a powderhorn (police slang for a legal gunshop which sometimes sells guns to independent stick-up men with proven credentials and which does business, sometimes in bulk, to the Mafia), and approached their squad car.

    The Drawing of the Three King, Stephen, 1947- 1987

  • These hunters used to form parties of five or six in number, and arming themselves with musket, bullet bag, powderhorn and knife, they took their way on foot through the tangled forests of the country.

    Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5 Charles Herbert Sylvester

  • So came I at last to my habitation in Skeleton Cove and chancing to espy my great powderhorn where it hung, I reached it down and going without the cave, scattered its contents broadcast, this being all the powder I had brought hither.

    Martin Conisby's Vengeance Jeffery Farnol 1915

  • Soon as I got from sight of the house I made a powderhorn of a curled leaf, loaded my gun with portulaca powder, rammed in a tiger lily bullet, laid the weapon across my shoulder, and stepped high and lightly as Laddie does when he's in the Big Woods hunting for squirrel.

    Laddie: A True Blue Story 1913

  • He looked to the priming of his gun and laid it upon the rock beside him, together with his powderhorn and pouch of bullets.

    Prisoners of Hope A Tale of Colonial Virginia Mary Johnston 1903

  • There were several muskets in a cabin, and a great powderhorn, with about four pounds of powder in it.

    Robinson Crusoe 1895

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