The Collaborative International Dictionary
Arquebus \Ar"que*bus\, Arquebuse \Ar"que*buse\ (?; 277), n. [F. arquebuse, OF. harquebuse, fr. D. haak-bus; cf. G. hakenb["u]chse a gun with a hook. See Hagbut.] A sort of hand gun or firearm a contrivance answering to a trigger, by which the burning match was applied. The musket was a later invention. [Written also harquebus.]
Wiktionary
n. A sort of trigger-based handgun or firearm, by which a burning match was applied, from which the musket was derived.
Usage examples of "arquebuse".
Bothwellhaugh entered it at night, installed himself on the first floor, hung black cloth on the walls so that his shadow should not be seen from without, covered the floor with mattresses so that his footsteps might not be heard on the ground floor, fastened a racehorse ready saddled and bridled in the garden, hollowed out the upper part of the little gate which led to the open country so that he could pass through it at a gallop, armed himself with a loaded arquebuse, and shut himself up in the room.
He leaned his arquebuse on the balcony, and, having taken aim with the necessary leisure and coolness, fired.
Bothwellhaugh had put such a charge into the arquebuse, that the ball, having passed through the regent's heart, killed the horse of a gentleman on his right.
And thereupon D'Artagnan quitted his host, bowed to the guests, and took his arquebuse.
He heard with Jacques Cartier's sense the blare of his followers' trumpets down in the open square of the barbarous city, where the soldiers of many an Old-World fight, "with mustached lip and bearded chin, with arquebuse and glittering halberd, helmet, and cuirass," moved among the plumed and painted savages.
From that height they could overlook the neighboring highways in every direction, and could bring a merchant train to, with a shaft from a crossbow, or a shot from an arquebuse, at pleasure.
And your Reverence shall see him too, if he ever comes again within range of Ignacio's arquebuse.
The only precaution he had taken in coming to the archbishopric was to leave his arquebuse in the hands of a friend.
All these cloaks, gray or black, were raised behind by the point of a sword, or before by the barrel of an arquebuse or a musket.
Everywhere were swords, pistols, cuirasses, and arquebuses, and it was plain that as soon as his gout was better Monsieur de Bouillon would give a pretty tangle to the enemies of the parliament to unravel.
All these Page 320 Dumas, Alexandre - Twenty Years After cloaks, gray or black, were raised behind by the point of a sword, or before by the barrel of an arquebuse or a musket.