breech-loading

British

/ ˈbriːtʃˌləʊdɪŋ /

adjective

(of a firearm) loaded at the breech

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Conservators for Blackbeard’s ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge found the 16 fragments of paper wedged inside the chamber for a breech-loading cannon, with the largest piece being the size of a quarter.

From Seattle Times

Three of the many kinds of weapons used in the war are particularly important: the minie ball, the breech-loading repeating rifle, and the ironclad ship.

From Literature

He had a beautiful breech-loading shotgun, costing, he suggested, a hundred and twenty dollars.

From Project Gutenberg

It will be, moreover, memorable as being the first encounter in which British troops ever used breech-loading rifles.

From Project Gutenberg

The modern explorer has at his service breech-loading magazine rifles, invaluable geographical and scientific knowledge, and an adequate supply of suitable food and drugs.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023