Word.ws English Dictionary

blunderbuss

Syllables: blun·der·bussUK/ˈblʌn.dəˌbʌs//ˈblʌn.dɚˌbʌs/

blunderbuss noun: an old style of muzzleloading firearm and early form of shotgun with a distinctive short, large caliber barrel that is flared at the muzzle, therefore able to fire scattered quantities of nails, stones, shot, etc. at short range.

blunderbuss: an old style of muzzleloading firearm and early form of shotgun with a distinctive short, large...
Image: Uploadalt, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

blunderbuss (plural blunderbusses)

  1. An old style of muzzleloading firearm and early form of shotgun with a distinctive short, large caliber barrel that is flared at the muzzle, therefore able to fire scattered quantities of nails, stones, shot, etc. at short range.
    • We fired the blunderbuss several times by way of salute, and soon after landed at the bank near the village of the Mahahas, or Shoe Indians, and were received by a crowd of people, who came to welcome our return.1817, Merriweather Lewis, William Clark, Travels to the Source of the Missouri River, and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, page 354
    • One of the most picturesque of the old flintlock guns is the blunderbuss, which was often carried by coach guards for protection against highwaymen.June 1942, Carl G. Erich, “Flintlock Blunderbuss”, in Popular Science

Verb

blunderbuss (third-person singular simple present blunderbusses, present participle blunderbussing, simple past and past participle blunderbussed)

  1. (transitive) To shoot with a blunderbuss.

blunderbuss meaning in Malay and Indonesian

blunderbuss in Malay

old style of firearm with a distinctive large opening at the muzzle
pemuras

blunderbuss in Indonesian

old style of firearm with a distinctive large opening at the muzzle
pemuras

Forms of blunderbuss

Noun
pluralblunderbusses
Verb
third-person singular presentblunderbusses
present participleblunderbussing
past participleblunderbussed
pastblunderbussed

Origin of blunderbuss

From Dutch donderbus (“blunderbuss”, literally “thunder gun”), which was altered under the influence of blunder.

Questions about blunderbuss

What does blunderbuss mean?
Blunderbuss means an old style of muzzleloading firearm and early form of shotgun with a distinctive short, large caliber barrel that is flared at the muzzle, therefore able to fire scattered quantities of nails, stones, shot, etc. at short range.
What is blunderbuss in Malay?
Blunderbuss in Malay is pemuras. See Blunderbuss meaning in Malay.
What part of speech is blunderbuss?
Blunderbuss can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce blunderbuss?
Blunderbuss is pronounced /ˈblʌn.dəˌbʌs/ (UK).
What is the plural of blunderbuss?
The plural of blunderbuss is blunderbusses.

Words near blunderbuss in the dictionary

  1. blunder
  2. blunder years
  3. blunder'd
  4. blunderbush
  5. blunderbushes
  6. blunderbuss
  7. blunderbussed
  8. blunderbusses
  9. blunderbussing
  10. blunderbust
  11. blundered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blunderbuss (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: en-us-blunderbuss.ogg, en-au-blunderbuss.ogg.

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