Dictionary

musketry en · NOUN

Etymology

From musket + -ry, after Italian moschetteria. Compare French mousqueterie.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The technique of using small arms such as muskets.
   • "Nickle will never make a reliable shot," confided Mr. Carrados to the little band of paralysed listeners. "He always takes sight too low—fault of British army musketry training. […]" 1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:
2. (countable, uncountable) A collection of muskets or musketeers.
3. (countable, uncountable) Musket fire.
   • A heavy trampling of steps—clashing as if of swords—several rounds of musketry—screams—shouts—rose in the direction of the court. 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 251–252:
   • Nor was this less ominous than the rattle of musketry, for it suggested but a single solution to the little band of rescuers—that the illy garrisoned village had already succumbed to the onslaught of a superior force. 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 132:

Forms