blunderbuss

[ bluhn-der-buhs ]

/ ˈblʌn dərˌbʌs /

a short musket of wide bore with expanded muzzle to scatter shot, bullets, or slugs at close range.

an insensitive, blundering person.

Origin of blunderbuss

1645–55; < Dutch donderbus (equivalent to donder thunder + bus gun, box¹) with donder replaced by blunder. See harquebus

blumberg's sign, blume, blumenau, blunden, blunder, blunderbuss, blunderhead, blunge, blunger, blunkett, blunt

For a moment the girl was tempted to seize the blunderbuss from its leather bed and jump out into the road.

Through the Gates of Old Romance |W. Jay Mills
No—no—every way—think of it as I will, it's my wisest plan to cut; an' at any rate, he'd find me out now about the blunderbuss.

The Tithe-Proctor |William Carleton
If Navarro wakes up, he'll snatch at his blunderbuss, and then look out for yourself!

Carmen |Prosper Merimee
Chisels, mallets, hammers, tools and weapons of all kinds from a wheel-spoke to a blunderbuss were brandished in their hands.

The Incendiary |W. A. (William Augustine) Leahy

Arblast, arquebuse, blunderbuss, mark a humbler collateral descent in the same verbal family.

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Vol. XV., No. 85. January, 1875. |Various

blunderbuss

/ (ˈblʌndəˌbʌs) /

an obsolete short musket with large bore and flared muzzle, used to scatter shot at short range

informal a clumsy unsubtle person

C17: changed (through the influence of blunder) from Dutch donderbus; from donder thunder + obsolete bus gun