ramrod
3
9.1
- noun
- /ˈræmˌrɒd/
- Archaic
:
ramrod
- The Yankees were reloading as they ran; most of them had to stop to use their ramrods.
- ramrod from the musket
- ramrod in the barrel
Examples
-
In Bull Run I saw a soldier forget to remove his ramrod from the barrel.
-
A man near Inman grew so excited, or perhaps so weary, that he forgot to pull the ramrod from the barrel.
Fiction book (1997) -
We heard the metallic clashing of steel as the soldiers removed the ramrods from their muskets and started loading the weapons in ten easy steps.
Fiction book (1994) -
He set the butt of the musket down on the step, slowly slid the cartridge into the barrel of the musket, and prodded it down the long barrel with the ramrod.
Fiction book (2002) -
To clean the firearm effectively, the soldier used a ramrod to push the cleaning cloth through the barrel.
-
He carefully inserted the ramrod into the gun's barrel to load the bullet.
-
After firing, it's important to remove the ramrod from the barrel before reloading.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Ramrod comes from the parts ram ('push') and rod ('stick'). It was the long stick soldiers used to push the powder and bullet into a musket barrel, so ramrod means the rod used for loading or cleaning a gun.