arblast

English

Alternative forms

• arbalest, arbalist

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English arblast, from late Old English arblast, from Old French arbaleste (modern French arbalète), from Late Latin arcuballista, from Latin arcus (“bow”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɑːblɑːst/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑɹblæst/

Noun

arblast (plural arblasts)

1. (historical) A wooden crossbow with a special drawing mechanism, used to fire bolts, stones, etc.
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XIV, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 281:

     “ […] Here be two arblasts, comrade, with windlaces and quarrells—to the barbican with you, and see you drive each bolt through a Saxon brain.”

Anagrams

• lab rats, lab-rats

Old English

Etymology

From Old French arbaleste (modern French arbalète), from Late Latin arcuballista, from Latin arcus (“bow”).

Noun

arblast m

1. crossbow, arblast

Declension

Strong a-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	arblast	arblastas
accusative	arblast	arblastas
genitive	arblastes	arblasta
dative	arblaste	arblastum

Descendants

• English: arblast

References

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “arblast”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.