Word Meanings - GUNPOWDER - Book Publishers vocabulary database

A black, granular, explosive substance, consisting of an intimate mechanical mixture of niter, charcoal, and sulphur. It is used in gunnery and blasting. Note: Gunpowder consists of from 70 to 80 per cent of niter, with 10 to 15 per cent of each

Additional info about word: GUNPOWDER

A black, granular, explosive substance, consisting of an intimate mechanical mixture of niter, charcoal, and sulphur. It is used in gunnery and blasting. Note: Gunpowder consists of from 70 to 80 per cent of niter, with 10 to 15 per cent of each of the other ingredients. Its explosive energy is due to the fact that it contains the necessary amount of oxygen for its own combustion, and liberates gases (chiefly nitrogen and carbon dioxide), which occupy a thousand or fifteen hundred times more space than the powder which generated them. Gunpowder pile driver, a pile driver, the hammer of which is thrown up by the explosion of gunpowder. -- Gunpowder plot , a plot to destroy the King, Lords, and Commons, in revenge for the penal laws against Catholics. As Guy Fawkes, the agent of the conspirators, was about to fire the mine, which was placed under the House of Lords, he was seized, Nov. 5, 1605. Hence, Nov. 5 is known in England as Guy Fawkes Day. -- Gunpowder tea, a species of fine green tea, each leaf of which is rolled into a small ball or pellet.

Related words: (words related to GUNPOWDER)

• NITER; NITRE
  A white crystalline semitransparent salt; potassium nitrate; saltpeter. See Saltpeter.
• SULPHUR-BOTTOM
  A very large whalebone whale of the genus Sibbaldius, having a yellowish belly; especially, S. sulfureus of the North Pacific, and S. borealis of the North Atlantic; -- called also sulphur whale.
• BLACK LETTER
  The old English or Gothic letter, in which the Early English manuscripts were written, and the first English books were printed. It was conspicuous for its blackness. See Type.
• INTIMATE
  corresponding to the compar. interior cf. F. intime. The form 1. Innermost; inward; internal; deep-seated; hearty. "I knew from intimate impulse." Milton. 2. Near; close; direct; thorough; complete. He was honored with an intimate and immediate
• BLACKEN
  Etym: 1. To make or render black. While the long funerals blacken all the way. Pope 2. To make dark; to darken; to cloud. "Blackened the whole heavens." South. 3. To defame; to sully, as reputation; to make infamous; as, vice blackens
• BLACKWATER STATE
  Nebraska; -- a nickname alluding to the dark color of the water of its rivers, due to the presence of a black vegetable mold in the soil.
• CONSISTENTLY
  In a consistent manner.
• BLASTMENT
  A sudden stroke or injury produced by some destructive cause. Shak.
• BLACK FLAGS
  An organization composed originally of Chinese rebels that had been driven into Tonkin by the suppression of the Taiping rebellion, but later increased by bands of pirates and adventurers. It took a prominent part in fighting the French during their
• CONSIST
  1. To stand firm; to be in a fixed or permanent state, as a body composed of parts in union or connection; to hold together; to be; to exist; to subsist; to be supported and maintained. He is before all things, and by him all things consist. Col.
• SULPHURWORT
  The hog's fennel. See under Fennel.
• BLACK-JACK
  A name given by English miners to sphalerite, or zinc blende; - - called also false galena. See Blende. 2. Caramel or burnt sugar, used to color wines, spirits, ground coffee, etc. 3. A large leather vessel for beer, etc.
• BLACK LEAD
  Plumbago; graphite.It leaves a blackish mark somewhat like lead. See Graphite.
• CONSISTORIAN
  Pertaining to a Presbyterian consistory; -- a contemptuous term of 17th century controversy. You fall next on the consistorian schismatics; for so you call Presbyterians. Milton.
• BLASTOSPHERE
  The hollow globe or sphere formed by the arrangement of the blastomeres on the periphery of an impregnated ovum. Note:
• GRANULARY
  Granular.
• BLACK HOLE
  A dungeon or dark cell in a prison; a military lock-up or guardroom; -- now commonly with allusion to the cell in a fort at Calcutta, into which 146 English prisoners were thrust by the nabob Suraja Dowla on the night of June 20, 17656, and in which
• BLACK FRIDAY
  Any Friday on which a public disaster has occurred, as: In England, December 6, 1745, when the news of the landing of the Pretender reached London, or May 11, 1866, when a financial panic commenced. In the United States, September 24, 1869, and
• BLASTOPHORE
  That portion of the spermatospore which is not converted into spermatoblasts, but carries them.
• BLASTODERMATIC; BLASTODERMIC
  Of or pertaining to the blastoderm.
• BORDEAUX MIXTURE
  A fungicidal mixture composed of blue vitriol, lime, and water. The formula in common use is: blue vitriol, 6 lbs.; lime, 4 lbs.; water, 35 -- 50 gallons.
• FRANKFORT BLACK
  . A black pigment used in copperplate printing, prepared by burning vine twigs, the lees of wine, etc. McElrath.
• UNITERABLE
  Not iterable; incapable of being repeated. "To play away an uniterable life." Sir T. Browne.
• PROTOSULPHURET
  A protosulphide.
• DIPLOBLASTIC
  Characterizing the ovum when it has two primary germinal layers.
• MAGNASE BLACK
  A black pigment which dries rapidly when mixed with oil, and is of intense body. Fairholt.
• NEMATOBLAST
  A spermatocyte or spermoblast.
• ABLASTEMIC
  Non-germinal.
• SHOEBLACK
  One who polishes shoes.
• CNIDOBLAST
  One of the cells which, in the Coelenterata, develop into cnidæ.