Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. (context historical English) A heavy object used for battering down walls and gates before gunpowder was known.
WordNet
n. a ram used to break down doors of fortified buildings
Wikipedia
A battering ram is a siege engine that originated in ancient times and designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates.
In its simplest form, a battering ram is just a large, heavy log carried by several people and propelled with force against an obstacle; the ram would be sufficient to damage the target if the log were massive enough and/or it were moved quickly enough (that is, if it had enough momentum). Later rams encased the log in an arrow-proof, fire-resistant canopy mounted on wheels. Inside the canopy, the log was swung from suspensory chains or ropes.
Rams proved effective weapons of war because old fashioned wall-building materials such as stone and brick were weak in tension, and therefore prone to cracking when impacted with force. With repeated blows, the cracks would grow steadily until a hole was created. Eventually, a breach would appear in the fabric of the wall—enabling armed attackers to force their way through the gap and engage the inhabitants of the citadel.
The introduction in the later Middle Ages of siege cannons, which harnessed the explosive power of gunpowder to propel weighty stone or iron balls against fortified obstacles, spelled the end of battering rams and other traditional siege weapons. Much smaller, hand-held versions of battering rams are still used today, however, by law enforcement officers and military personnel to bash open locked doors.
- Redirect List of Marvel Comics characters: B#Battering Ram
it:Ariete (personaggio)
Category:Marvel Comics superheroes Category:Marvel Comics mutants Category:Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength
Battering Ram is the fifth studio album by the German power metal band Iron Savior.
A battering ram is a siege engine originating in ancient times.
Battering Ram may also refer to:
- Battering Ram (Iron Savior album), 2004 album by the German power metal band Iron Savior.
- Battering Ram (Saxon album), 2015 album by the English heavy metal band Saxon.
- Battering Ram (comics), fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Universe.
Battering Ram is the twenty-first studio album by British heavy metal band Saxon, which was released on 16 October 2015.
Usage examples of "battering ram".
See if you can find a great hard timber, a big log or tree trunk, something that will serve as a battering ram.
It was hard for Bill to believe that their minds did not spring immediately from his suggestion of using a tree trunk to the idea of using it as a battering ram against the gates.
At his signal, fifty men carrying a battering ram in a protective frame ran forward to try the gates.
It was a battering ram that had lain in an armory vault for as long as the arrowmaster could remember.
Nevertheless, as the Baudelaire orphans stumbled around the cell, dropping each half of the battering ram and listening to the sound of the crows flying in circles outside, they stared at the huge cloud of dust as if it were a thing of great beauty, because this particular huge dust cloud was made of pieces of brick and mortar and other building materials that are needed to build a wall, and the Baudelaires knew that they were seeing it because Violet's invention had worked.
No matter how hard and long he beat at Marshank's gates with his battering ram, they seemed to hold up.