The Collaborative International Dictionary
Columbiad \Co*lum"bi*ad\, n. [From Columbia the United States.] (Mil.) A form of seacoast cannon; a long, chambered gun designed for throwing shot or shells with heavy charges of powder, at high angles of elevation.
Note: Since the War of 1812 the Columbiad has been much modified, especially by General Rodman, and the improved form now used in seacoast defense is often called the Rodman gun.
Wiktionary
n. (context military historical English) A form of seacoast cannon; a long, chambered gun designed for launching shot or shells with heavy charges of powder, at high angles of elevation.
Wikipedia
The Columbiad was a large- caliber, smoothbore, muzzle-loading cannon able to fire heavy projectiles at both high and low trajectories. This feature enabled the columbiad to fire solid shot or shell to long ranges, making it an excellent seacoast defense weapon for its day. Invented by Colonel George Bomford, United States Army, in 1811, columbiads were used by the United States coastal artillery from the War of 1812 until the early years of the 20th Century. Very few columbiads were used outside of the U.S. and Confederate Armies; nevertheless, the columbiad is considered by some as the inspiration for the later shell-only cannons developed by Frenchman Henri-Joseph Paixhans some 30 years later.
Columbiad is a solo modern dance choreographed by Martha Graham to music by Louis Horst. Edythe Gilfond designed the costume; Philip Stapp created the set. The ballet premiered on December 27, 1939, at the St. James Theatre in New York City. Columbiad's debut was part of an event called the Holiday Dance Festival, which included four additional works by Graham and pieces by the American Ballet Caravan, Carmalita Maracci and Dance Group, and Korean modern dancer Sai Shoki.
Usage examples of "columbiad".
They have their eyes on Columbiad, where we have our greatest forces concentrated.
They were too busy searching for the Mutie congregation on Columbiad to scan space too.
Second, that the gun should be a Columbiad cast in iron, 900 feet long, and run perpendicularly into the earth.
It was on this spot, after stupendous labor, that the Columbiad was cast with full success.
The tackle belonging to the crane being hauled from outside, the mouth of the Columbiad was instantly disencumbered of its last supports.
The Columbiad, that mighty cannon, was dug still deeper than Verne described.
Its batteries consisted of eight thirty-two-pounders, three thirty-two-pound carronades, one ten-inch Columbiad and one thirty-two-pounder rifle.
I should not care to have the Bronx sunk by a columbiad in the attempt to find out the strength of the fort.
Out of the door he went as if shot from the throat of a columbiad, with a procession of sinewy-limbed warriors at his heels.
He had heard of gun-boats and mortar-boats, of forts built upon the river, of Columbiads, Dahlgrens, and Parrotts, of all the pomps and circumstance of glorious war, and entertained an idea that Cairo was the nucleus or pivot of all really strategetic movements in this terrible national struggle.
These men, and these women also, pray for the South if they be pious, give their money to the South if they be generous, work for the South if they be industrious, fight for the South if they be young, and talk for the South morning, noon, and night, in spite of General Dix and his columbiads on Federal Hill.
The land in the rear of Vicksburg is about two hundred feet high, on which are placed some eight and ten inch columbiads, which are perfectly secure from our fire.
The coming of Columbiad and Cavorite had been good for the fool cages.
The mouth of the Columbiad, now completely disencumbered, was open entirely to the sky.