What is "petard"

Usage examples of "petard".

The noise was something awful, and as it came into the lonely Stadthaus, and red, blue, crimson, and greenish-yellow glares at short intervals lighted up the picturesque Malacca steam and its blue and yellow houses, with their steep red-tiled roofs and balconies and quaint projections, and the streets were traced in fire and smoke, while crackers, squibs, and rockets went off in hundreds, and cannon, petards, and gingalls were fired incessantly, and gongs, drums, and tom-toms were beaten, the sights, and the ceaseless, tremendous, universal din made a rehearsal of the final assault on a city in old days.

I confess I rather enjoyed the thought of you being hoist with your own petard, Mizz Galilei.

Murderer is hoist on his own petard for he sees that poor simp, Victim, do exactly what he does but go him one better.

The senators found themselves hoist with their own petard, however, for the lower house, made up largely of Grangers, accepted this bill rather than let the matter of railroad legislation go by default.

At the same time, the assailants fired briskly on them through the loopholes, and, placing a petard under the walls, threatened to blow them into the air.

Formidable and well-built as it was, the timber barrier would have been bypassable and therefore most ineffective in many another spot along this road, but where it sat, anchored on either hand to thick, massive posts sunk deeply into the road's shoulders, ease of passageor any passage at all, for that mattercould have been attained only by burning it or blasting it apart with cannon fire or, possibly, a brace of hefty petards to destroy the main supports.

Formidable and well-built as it was, the timber barrier would have been bypassable and therefore most ineffective in many another spot along this road, but where it sat, anchored on either hand to thick, massive posts sunk deeply into the road's shoulders, ease of passage-or any passage at all, for that matter-could have been attained only by burning it or blasting it apart with cannon fire or, possibly, a brace of hefty petards to destroy the main supports.

We went to Dartmouth's Winter Carnival together and canoodled afterward in the icy moon­light under a bearskin rug in Denis's antique sleigh over by Occam Pond, nearly freezing our silly petards off.

Their Own Petard I n a lofty, spacious room of the town hall at Taunton sat Sir Edward Phelips and Colonel Luttrell to dispense justice, and with them, flanked by one of them on either side of him, sat Christopher Monk, Duke of Albemarle, Lord-Lieutenant of Devonshire, who had been summoned in all haste from Exeter that he might be present at an examination which promised to be of so vast importance.

And then hoist on its own petard of multiple felonies and enough flat-put crime to put anybody who'd admit to this kind of stinking behavior in the Nevada State Prison until 1984.

Magnesium charges flashed brilliantly, and armor petards roared, as 3rd Platoon's Jerries worked and fought, destroying and dying along the rows of tanks.

Demolitionists darted up to tanks and clambered onto them: slammed petards against access panels, or magnesium charges into shaper muzzles or air intakes, triggered charges and time fuses, then moved on if they could.

When the demolitions platoons with their petards and heavy rockets disembarked from the APFs, the fire they faced was light.

The butcher's bill would be unthinkably high for any attempt at placing petards, and in order for his six minions to accomplish anything at all, they would have to go into battery virtually under the looming mouths of some dozen demiculverins cunningly emplaced on the side of the hill that arose hard by the left side of the road.

There was a great bustle of carpenters and engineers, bringing up and assembling missile throwers, constructing hoardings to protect them, stacking stone balls, fire bombs, and explosive petards for their use.