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ordnance

 - 3 dictionary results

ord⋅nance

  [awrd-nuhns]
Use ordnance in a Sentence
–noun
1. cannon or artillery.
2. military weapons with their equipment, ammunition, etc.
3. the branch of an army that procures, stores, and issues, weapons, munitions, and combat vehicles and maintains arsenals for their development and testing.
Origin:
1620–30; syncopated var. of ordinance
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ord·nance   (ôrd'nəns)   
n.  

  1. Military materiel, such as weapons, ammunition, combat vehicles, and equipment.

  2. The branch of an armed force that procures, maintains, and issues weapons, ammunition, and combat vehicles.

  3. Cannon; artillery.


[Middle English ordnaunce, variant of ordinaunce, order, military provision; see ordinance.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

ordnance 
"cannon, artillery," a clipped form of ordinance (q.v.) which was attested from 1390 in the sense of "military materials, provisions of war;" a sense now obsolete but which led to those of "engines for discharging missiles" (c.1430) and "branch of the military concerned with stores and materials" (1485). The shorter word was established in these distinct senses by 17c. Ordnance survey (1833), official survey of Great Britain and Ireland, was undertaken by the government under the direction of the Master-General of the Ordnance (a natural choice, because gunners have to be skilled at surveying ranges and distances).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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