Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A gun the projectile force of which is derived from the expansion of steam issuing through the shotted tube.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Winans steam-gun, with a pair of Dahlgren howitzers for side arms!

    Incidents of the War: Humorous, Pathetic, and Descriptive Alf Burnett

  • As he took the steam-gun, so he now takes what might become the stoker of the steam part of that machine and the aimer of its gun part.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 46, August, 1861 Various

  • It is really a steam-gun, rather than a steam-engine, and it is not unlikely that the study of the action of gunpowder may have suggested it to Leonardo.

    A History of Science: in Five Volumes. Volume II: The Beginnings of Modern Science 1904

  • The merits of the steam-gun are thus summed up by its inventor, Mr. Dickinson: — As

    Steam-Battery 1861

  • Even Perkins's steam-gun was an old invention revived by Leonardo da Vinci and by him attributed to Archimedes.

    Industrial Biography Smiles, Samuel, 1812-1904 1863

  • If he will take the trouble to look about him, he may find a greater number of confirmations of the fact in the occurrences of any single day, than the steam-gun can discharge balls in a minute.

    Martin Chuzzlewit Charles Dickens 1841

  • His hands were in his coat pockets, his body bent a little forward, his head and neck outstretched a little beyond it, his eyes almost starting from the sockets, and certainly the most prominent feature in his face: his teeth firmly clinched on his beloved pipe, and his lips expelling a multitude of little clouds so vigorously that one might have taken him for a sort of self-acting intelligent steam-gun that had resolved utterly to annihilate Kate and Harry at short range in the course of two minutes.

    The Young Fur Traders 1859

  • a little beyond it, his eyes almost starting from the sockets, and certainly the most prominent feature in his face; his teeth firmly clinched on his beloved pipe, and his lips expelling a multitude of little clouds so vigorously that one might have taken him for a sort of self-acting intelligent steam-gun that had resolved utterly to annihilate Kate and Harry at short range in the course of two minutes.

    The Young Fur Traders 1859

  • Perkins's steam-gun was an old invention revived by Leonardo da Vinci and by him attributed to Archimedes. [

    Industrial Biography, Iron Workers and Tool Makers Samuel Smiles 1858

  • I have read lately of his successful exhibition of his wonderful steam-gun, in the presence of the Duke of Wellington and other competent judges of the experiment, and know not what national prejudice, perhaps, or other casual reason, prevented its adoption. [

    Old New England Traits George Lunt 1844

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