properly means a serpent (Latin, colubriʹnus, the colʹuber), but is applied to a long, slender piece of artillery employed in the sixteenth century to carry balls to a great distance. Queen Elizabeth’s “Pocket Pistol” in Dover Castle is a culverin.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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