Word.ws English Dictionary

trebuchet

/ˈtɹɛbəʃɛt/US/ˈtɹɛb.juˌʃɛt/

trebuchet noun: a medieval siege engine consisting of a large pivoting arm heavily weighted on one end.

trebuchet: a medieval siege engine consisting of a large pivoting arm heavily weighted on one end
Image: Quistnix, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

trebuchet (plural trebuchets)

  1. A medieval siege engine consisting of a large pivoting arm heavily weighted on one end.
    • Medieval trebuchets are said to have been capable of launching 90-kg projectiles over distances of more than 300 meters.
    • With counterweight trebuchets at its disposal, a besieging force at last had the advantage in sieges, and it was probably the appearance of the trebuchet which prompted the changes in castle design from the mid-twelfth century onwards which were described in the previous chapter: the move from...2003, Helen Nicholson, Medieval Warfare, Macmillan International Higher Education, →ISBN, page 95
  2. A torture device for dunking suspected witches by means of a chair attached to the end of a long pole.

Verb

trebuchet (third-person singular simple present trebuchets, present participle trebucheting, simple past and past participle trebucheted)

  1. To shoot with a trebuchet.

trebuchet meaning in Arabic and Persian

trebuchet in Arabic

trebuchet
منجنيق manjanīq

trebuchet in Persian

trebuchet
کشکنجیر koškanjir

Forms of trebuchet

Noun
pluraltrebuchets
alternative form (obsolete)trabuch
alternative form (obsolete)trabucho
alternative form (obsolete)trabuquet
alternative form (obsolete)trepeget
Verb
third-person singular presenttrebuchets
present participletrebucheting
past participletrebucheted
pasttrebucheted

Origin of trebuchet

From Old French trebuchet, trebuket et al. (modern trébuchet), from trebuchier (“to overthrow, topple”), from tres- + *buchier, from Old French buc (“trunk of the body”), from Old Frankish *būk (“belly, trunk, torso”), from Proto-Germanic *būkaz (“belly, abdomen, trunk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰōw- (“to blow, swell”). Cognate with Old High German būh (“belly”), Old English būc (“belly, trunk”). More at bouk.

Questions about trebuchet

What does trebuchet mean?
Trebuchet means a medieval siege engine consisting of a large pivoting arm heavily weighted on one end.
What is trebuchet in Arabic?
Trebuchet in Arabic is منجنيق (manjanīq). See Trebuchet meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is trebuchet?
Trebuchet can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce trebuchet?
Trebuchet is pronounced /ˈtɹɛbəʃɛt/ (UK).
What is the plural of trebuchet?
The plural of trebuchet is trebuchets.

Words near trebuchet in the dictionary

  1. trebouxiophyceans
  2. trebouxiophyte
  3. trebouxiophytes
  4. trebouxoid
  5. trebs
  6. trebuchet
  7. trebucheted
  8. trebucheting
  9. trebuchets
  10. trebucket
  11. trebuckets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trebuchet (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)-Vealhurl-trebuchet.wav.

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