Word.ws English Dictionary

arquebus

UK/ˈɑː.kwɪ.bəs//ˈɑɹ.kwɪ.bəs/

arquebus is the alternative form of harquebus.

Meaning of harquebus

Noun

harquebus (plural harquebuses or harquebusses)

  1. An obsolete matchlock firearm.
    • All the while they had their eye and foot so quicke and readie, that as soone as ever they saw the harquebuse raised to the cheeke, so soon were they on the ground, and eftsoone to answer with their bowes, and to the their way, if by chance they perceived that we were about to take them.1850, William Gilmore Simms, The Lily and the Totem: or, The Huguenots in Florida, Digitalized edition, Baker and Schribner, published 2009, page 292
  2. A portable gun, varying in size from a small cannon to a musket. When used in the field it was supported upon a tripod or trestle.

Verb

arquebus (third-person singular simple present arquebuses, present participle arquebusing, simple past and past participle arquebused)

  1. (rare, transitive) To shoot with an arquebus.

Forms of arquebus

Noun
pluralarquebuses
pluralarquebusses
Verb
third-person singular presentarquebuses
present participlearquebusing
past participlearquebused
pastarquebused

Words formed from arquebus

Questions about arquebus

What does arquebus mean?
Arquebus means to shoot with an arquebus.
What is arquebus the alternative form of?
Arquebus is the alternative form of harquebus.
What part of speech is arquebus?
Arquebus is a verb.
How do you pronounce arquebus?
Arquebus is pronounced /ˈɑː.kwɪ.bəs/ (UK).
What is the past tense of arquebus?
The past tense of arquebus is arquebused.

Words near arquebus in the dictionary

  1. arpromidine
  2. arps
  3. Arpses
  4. ARPU
  5. arquated
  6. arquebus
  7. arquebusade
  8. arquebusades
  9. arquebuse
  10. arquebused
  11. arquebuses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: arquebus (page history and authors); harquebus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-arquebus.wav.

Cite this entry: “arquebus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arquebus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.