Meanings
caliver1
plural calivers
- historicalA type of light musket.
0, giue me the ſpare men, and ſpare me the great ones. Put me a Calyuer into VVarts hand, Bardolph.
c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 88, column 11 more example
That done, running out into the streets, with a crosse-bow in one hand, and a caliver [translating harquebouze] in the other, at two shoots, slew the two first Turks that came next to his gates[…].
1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
Caliver2
Origin
Variant of calibre.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
caliver. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/caliver
“caliver.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/caliver. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “caliver,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/caliver.
Source: caliver on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.