ammunition chest
- noun
- /ˌæmjʊˈnɪʃən tʃɛst/
:
cofre de municiones
- During the inspection, the commander ensured that every ammunition chest was properly stocked for the mission.
Examples
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The soldiers opened the ammunition chest to retrieve the supplies needed for the upcoming battle.
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Each ammunition chest was carefully sealed to prevent damage to the military supplies inside.
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Back at the limber that held the ammunition chest, two more soldiers handed another bag of powder and a ball to a third, who carried them at a run to the man who loaded them into the smoothbore.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
363
1.0
A large strong box for storing clothes or valuables
245
1.3
A thing that holds or stores items, for example a box
6
7.4
A secure place on a ship or base where weapons and ammunition are kept
4
9.9
A vehicle that carries shells for large guns, often pulled by horses
A large strong box used to store valuable or household items
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'ammunition' (bullets/shells) + 'chest' (a sturdy box) yields a box for storing ammunition. This follows regular English noun-noun compounding and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Ammunition chest comes from the simple picture of a strong box filled with bullets and shells. Because soldiers kept their ammunition in a locked chest to protect and carry it, the phrase now means 'a strong container used to store and transport ammunition'.