Word.ws English Dictionary

portpiece

portpiece noun: a smaller cannon or gun mounted on the side of a ship. These were often used for close-range engagements or for firing at smaller targets.

Noun

portpiece (plural portpieces)

  1. a smaller cannon or gun mounted on the side of a ship. These were often used for close-range engagements or for firing at smaller targets.
    • PORT-PIECE An ancient piece of ordnance used in our early fleets.1867, Admiral W. H. Smyth, The Sailor’s Word Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautcal Terms Including Some More Especially Military and Scientific but Useful to Seamen as Well as Archaisms of Early...
    • They fired 3½ lbs of powder against 3¼ lbs of the portpiece, an iron shot of 2½ lbs or a stone of 2¼.1898, Julian S, Corbett, editor, The Spanish War 1585-1587 (Publications of the Navy Records Society), volume XI, Navy Records Society, page 332

Forms of portpiece

pluralportpieces

Questions about portpiece

What does portpiece mean?
Portpiece means a smaller cannon or gun mounted on the side of a ship. These were often used for close-range engagements or for firing at smaller targets.
What part of speech is portpiece?
Portpiece is a noun.
What is the plural of portpiece?
The plural of portpiece is portpieces.

Words near portpiece in the dictionary

  1. portovenous
  2. Portoviejo
  3. portpass
  4. portpasses
  5. Portpatrick
  6. portpiece
  7. portpieces
  8. Portrack
  9. portrait
  10. portrait painting
  11. portrait paintings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: portpiece (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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