canister shot
- noun
- Archaic
:
munición de cartucho
- When fired, canister shot releases dozens of small projectiles, maximizing its effectiveness in open field combat.
Examples
-
The soldiers braced themselves as the artillery unleashed canister shot, creating chaos among the advancing troops.
-
During the battle, the cannon fired canister shot, scattering metal balls over the enemy ranks.
-
But yeah, those canister shots doing work on my my Hessian line.
Synonyms
21
8.6
A metal cylinder filled with small metal balls fired from a cannon to hit many soldiers
1
9.8
A metal cylinder filled with small balls fired from a cannon to spread them widely
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning (a kind of ammunition made from a metal canister that scatters projectiles when fired) is directly built from 'canister' (a metal cylinder containing pellets) + 'shot' (a projectile/discharge). Although the term is somewhat technical/military, the noun+noun compositional pattern is transparent and a B1 learner who knows both constituents could infer the overall meaning.
Etymology
Canister shot was a metal can filled with many small metal balls, where the canister is the container and the shot are the balls. When a gun fired it the can broke open and the balls flew out like a giant shotgun, so they would 'scatter' over a wide area and hit many soldiers at close range.