Crossword clues for spontoon
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Spontoon \Spon*toon"\ (sp[o^]n*t[=oo]n"), n. [F. sponton, esponton, It. spontone, spuntone.] (Mil.) A kind of half-pike, or halberd, formerly borne by inferior officers of the British infantry, and used in giving signals to the soldiers.
Wiktionary
alt. A pointed weapon similar to a pike. n. A pointed weapon similar to a pike.
Wikipedia
A spontoon, sometimes known by the variant spelling espontoon or as a half-pike, is a type of European pole-arm that came into being alongside the pike. The spontoon was in wide use by the mid 17th century, and it continued to be used until the mid to late 19th century.
Unlike the pike, which was an extremely long weapon (typically 14 or 15 feet), the spontoon measured only 6 or 7 feet in overall length. Generally, this weapon featured a more elaborate head than the typical pike.
The head of a spontoon often had a pair of smaller blades on each side, giving the weapon the look of a military fork, or a trident.
Italians might have been the first to use the spontoon, and, in its early days, the weapon was used for combat, before it became more of a symbolic item.
After the musket replaced the pike as the primary weapon of the foot soldier, the spontoon remained in use as a signalling weapon. Non-commissioned officers carried the spontoon as a symbol of their rank and used it like a mace, in order to issue battlefield commands to their men. (Commissioned officers carried and commanded with swords, although some British Army officers used spontoons at the Battle of Culloden.)
During the Napoleonic Wars, the spontoon was used by Sergeants to defend the colours of a battalion or regiment from cavalry attack. The spontoon was one of few pole weapons that stayed in use long enough to make it into American history. As late as the 1890s, the spontoon could still be seen accompanying marching soldiers.
Lewis and Clark brought spontoons on their expedition with the Corps of Discovery. The weapons came in handy as backup arms when the Corps travelled through areas populated by bears.
There were also spontoon-style axes. These used the same shaped blades mounted on the side of the weapon, and had a shorter handle.
Today, a spontoon (or espontoon, as it is referred to in the manual of arms) is carried by the drum major of the U.S. Army's Fife and Drum Corps, a ceremonial unit of the 3rd US Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard).
Usage examples of "spontoon".
When Balbi wrote that his walls were hung with pictures of saints, it became a question of conveying the spontoon to him.
He bade Lorenzo buy him an in-folio edition of the Bible which had just been published, and it was into the spine of this enormous tome that he packed the precious spontoon, and thus conveyed it to Balbi, who immediately got to work.
With his spontoon he tested the timbers, and found them so decayed that they almost crumbled at the touch.
Unable, single-handed, to raise one of the sheets, he called Balbi to his aid, and between them, assisted by the spontoon, which Casanova inserted between the edge of the sheet and the gutter, they at last succeeded in tearing away the rivets.
Casanova went first, on all fours, and thrusting the point of his spontoon between the joints of the lead sheeting so as to obtain a hold, he crawled slowly upwards.
Lying flat on his stomach, and hanging far over, so as to see what he was doing, he worked one point of his spontoon into the sash of the grating, and, levering outwards, he strained until at last it came away completely in his hands.
Having accomplished so much, he turned, and, using his spontoon as before, he crawled back to the summit of the roof, and made his way rapidly along this to the spot where he had left Balbi.
Recovered, he took up his spontoon, which he had placed in the gutter, and, assisted by it, he climbed back to the dormer.
It was locked, but the lock was a poor one that yielded to half a dozen blows of the spontoon, and they passed into a little room beyond which by an open door they came into a long gallery lined with pigeon-holes stuffed with parchments, which they conceived to be the archives.
Krupp works here, Doctors Muffage and Spontoon look anything but conspiratorial.
Ministry, Spontoon having been technically disqualified because of a strange hysterical stigma, shaped like the ace of spades and nearly the same color, which would appear on his left cheek at moments of high stress, accompanied by severe migraine.
Sergeant, though your father, and as good a man in his duties as ever wielded a spontoon, is not the great Lord Stair, or even the Duke of Marlborough.
Toledo, spontoon, battle-axe, pike or half-pike, morgenstiern, and halbert.
The leader carried a spontoon with a broad, filigreed blade as a rank insignia.
He was carrying a spontoon that he had picked up from a dead Connaught sergeant.