slungshot

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noun

A maritime tool consisting of a weight (the "shot") affixed to the end of a long cord, used to cast line from one location to another and sometimes as an improvised weapon.

Scrabble 13
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Meanings

nounslungshot (plural slungshots)

plural slungshots

  1. nauticalA maritime tool consisting of a weight (the "shot") affixed to the end of a long cord, used to cast line from one location to another and sometimes as an improvised weapon.

    All at once the blood dropped out of her cheeks as the mercury drops from a broken barometer-tube, and she melted away from her seat like an image of snow; a slung[-]shot could not have brought her down better.

    1857–1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], chapter II, in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company, published 1858, →OCLC, page 35

Origin

From slung + shot.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

slungshot. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slungshot

MLA

“slungshot.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slungshot. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “slungshot,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slungshot.

Source: slungshot on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.