Word.ws English Dictionary

linstock

linstock noun: a pointed forked staff, shod with iron at the foot, to hold a lighted match for firing cannon.

Noun

linstock (plural linstocks)

  1. (historical) A pointed forked staff, shod with iron at the foot, to hold a lighted match for firing cannon.
    • […] now, sir, (as we were to ascend), their master gunner (a man of no mean skill and courage, you must think,) confronts me with his linstock ready to give fire;1598, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act II...
    • The offer likes not: and the nimble gunner / With linstock now the devilish cannon touches, [Alarum, and chambers go off] / And down goes all before them.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Examples of linstock in a sentence

  • The ship no sooner crossed the schooner's bows than a Malay ran forward with a linstock.1863, Charles Reade, chapter VIII, in Hard Cash: A Matter-of-Fact Romance, volume I, Boston: Dana Estes & Co, page 222:
  • The great guns ranged along the deck — each bound fast by its new breechings — with their linstocks and sponges and ladles and rammers, made no idle show of warlike strength.1923, Charles Boardman Hawes, The Dark Frigate, Chapter 6:

Forms of linstock

plurallinstocks
alternative formlintstock

Origin of linstock

Corrupted from luntstock, Dutch lontstok, from lont (“lunt”) + stok (“stock, stick”). See link (“a torch”), lunt, and stock.

Questions about linstock

What does linstock mean?
Linstock means a pointed forked staff, shod with iron at the foot, to hold a lighted match for firing cannon.
How do you use linstock in a sentence?
The ship no sooner crossed the schooner's bows than a Malay ran forward with a linstock.
What part of speech is linstock?
Linstock is a noun.
What is the plural of linstock?
The plural of linstock is linstocks.

Words near linstock in the dictionary

  1. Linson
  2. Linsons
  3. Linstead
  4. Linstead Parva
  5. Linsteads
  6. linstock
  7. linstocks
  8. lint
  9. lint ball
  10. lint balls
  11. lint doctor

Source and license

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