Definition of ordnance in English

WordNet

Noun
ordnance - large but transportable armament
		artillery, heavy weapon, gun
		armament weaponry used by military or naval force
		battery an assault in which the assailant makes physical contact
		cannon lower part of the leg extending from the hock to the fetlock in hoofed mammals
		field artillery, field gun movable artillery (other than antiaircraft) used by armies in the field (especially for direct support of front-line troops)
		four-pounder an artillery gun that throws a shot weighing four pounds
ordnance - military supplies
		munition, ordnance store

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Wiktionary

ordnance (Noun)
military equipment, especially weapons and ammunition.
ordnance (Noun)
artillery.

Webster DictionaryWebster's Unabridged Dictionary 📘

ordnance (n.)
Heavy weapons of warfare; cannon, or great guns, mortars, and howitzers; artillery; sometimes, a general term for all weapons and appliances used in war.

OmegaWiki DictionaryOmegaWiki Dictionary Ω

ordnance
Part of the war material that includes guns, mortars, bombs, etc.

Chambers DictionaryChamber's 20th Century Dictionary 📕

ordnance
ord′nans, n. great guns: artillery: (orig.) any arrangement, disposition, or equipment.—Ordnance survey, a preparation of maps and plans of Great Britain and Ireland, or parts thereof, undertaken by government and carried out by men selected from the Royal Engineers—so called because in earlier days the survey was carried out under the direction of the Master-general of the Ordnance. [Ordinance.]

Military DictionaryMilitary Dictionary and Gazetteer 💥

ordnance
A general name for all kinds of weapons employed in war, and the appliances necessary for their use. Under the general term ordnance and ordnance stores are included all guns, howitzers, mortars, rockets, and projectiles of every description, the explosives used in warfare, all gun-carriages, limbers, caissons, mortar-beds, battery-wagons, and traveling-forges with their equipments, and all other apparatus and machines required for the service and manœuvres of artillery at sieges or in the field; together with the materials for their construction, preservation, and repair. Also all small-arms, side-arms, and accoutrements for artillery, cavalry, and infantry, all ammunition for cannon and small-arms; and all stores of expenditures for the service of the various arms, materials for the construction and repair of ordnance buildings, utensils and stores for laboratories, including standing weights, gauges, and measures, and all other tools and utensils required for the performance of ordnance duty. Harness and horse equipments are also furnished by the ordnance department. This general application of the word is not the purport of the present article; it is its special signification as used by the artillery with which we have to do. Technically speaking, ordnance is a term applied to all heavy fire-arms which are discharged from carriages.
History.--Although the battering-rams and the engines for projecting missiles employed by the ancients and during the Middle Ages are regarded as artillery, yet the military weapons in use before the invention of fire-arms cannot fairly come under this designation. At what exact date cannon were first used is not known, but guns called “Crakys of War” were employed by Edward III. against the Scots in 1327, by the French at the siege of Puy Guillaume in 1338, and by Edward III. at Crécy, and at Calais in 1346. The first cannon, or bombards, were clumsy, wider at the mouth than at the chamber, and made of iron bars hooped together with iron rings. Ancient cannon were also made of wood wound with rope or wire, and in some instances were even occasionally constructed of leather. The balls fired from these bombards were first made of stone, which was afterwards superseded by iron. In the 15th century various kinds were known by the names of cannon, bombards, culverins, serpentines, etc. Bombards of great length and power were employed by Louis XI. during his Flemish campaign in 1477, some with stone balls and some with iron. About this time cannon began to be made of cast iron instead of hooped bars; and bronze or brass as material began to be used as well as iron, and projectiles were also made of cast iron instead of stone. The introduction of cast-iron projectiles led to the invention of culverins, which corresponded very nearly in construction and appearance to the guns of the present day; these were in some instances made of enormous lengths from the erroneous idea that the range increased with the length of the piece. A remarkable gun of this description still exists at Dover, England, familiarly known as “Queen Anne’s pocket-piece;” while it carries a ball weighing only 18 pounds, it is more than 28 feet in length. From the earliest days of artillery there existed short-chambered pieces, which projected stone balls under great angles of elevation; and in 1478 hollow projectiles filled with powder began to be employed; but it is probable that the accidents which accompanied their use caused them to be abandoned for the time. In 1634, however, this difficulty was overcome, and these pieces were introduced into the French service, forming the class of cannon now known as mortars. Early attempts were also made to throw hollow projectiles from culverins and other long guns, but great difficulties were experienced in loading them, and the accidents to which they were liable caused them to be abandoned. Subsequently, however, the Dutch artillerists reduced their length so that the projectile could be inserted in its place by hand, and thus improved these cannon rapidly came into use under the name of howitzers, from the German Haubitz. A short cannon of large caliber for naval service was invented by Mr. Gascoigne in 1799, and called a carronade, after the Carron Iron-Works, Scotland, where it was first made. It was not for many years after hollow projectiles had been used that it was accidentally discovered that the firing of the gun-charge could be relied upon to light the fuze. Prior to this a long fuze lighted from the outside had been used. The difficulties and danger incurred in loading long guns with hollow projectiles delayed their application to shell-firing, and it was not until 1812 that they were used for firing both solid shot and shell at low angles. In this year a gun of this class, which was invented by Col. Bomford, Chief of Ordnance, U.S.A., was adopted by the United States, and a number of these guns were used in the war with England, 1812-15. About 1814 this invention of Col. Bomford’s was improved upon by himself, and the gun thus improved was called a columbiad. The columbiad gave way about 1859 to the gun invented by Gen. Rodman. (See RODMAN GUN.) The dimensions of the columbiads were first taken to Europe by a young French officer, and thus fell into the hands of Gen. Paixhans, who introduced them, with certain modifications, into the French service about 1822. They were by this means first made known to the rest of Europe by the name of Paixhan gun, and small calibers were afterwards used in the U. S. service under that name. Cannon up to this time were constructed on the smooth-bore principle; the rifle principle, although employed by the Russians in 1615, by the Prussians in 1661, and by the Germans in 1696, had not been brought into general use on account of its imperfectness. From 1696 to 1833 many attempts were made to rifle cannon with more or less success; but although the firing of smooth-bore guns was as aberrant as that of smooth-bore muskets, and from greater range even more so, yet, since the gunners were safe from musketry fire at 200 yards, and the cannon could be directed against masses of men with tolerable certainty up to three times that distance, there was no special inducement to improve their powers. But the introduction of rifled small-arms changed the relative advantages; for a rifled small-arm might pick off the gunners of a smooth-bore cannon before their weapon could come into effective play. The Crimean war set inventors vigorously to work, and many admirable guns have resulted from their attempts, the great difficulty of the day being to decide which is most effective. Rifled guns have nearly superseded smooth-bored cannon, except in the United States, which still gives the preference to the latter.