crossbow

crossbow

English

A crossbow

Alternative forms

• cross-bow
• xbow (abbreviation)

Etymology

From Middle English crosbowe, crossebowe, equivalent to cross +‎ bow.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɒsbəʊ/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

Noun

crossbow (plural crossbows)

1. A mechanised weapon, based on the bow and arrow, that shoots bolts.
2. A portable ballista that can be held in the hand.

Derived terms

• crossbowman

Related terms

• bolt
• quarrel
• ballista

Descendants

• → Irish: crosbhogha (calque)
• → Japanese: クロスボウ
• → Welsh: bwa croes (calque)

Translations

mechanised weapon based on the bow

Ahom: 𑜀𑜂𑜫 (kaṅ) Arabic: قَوْس مُسْتَعْرَض‎ m (qaws mustaʿraḍ) Asturian: ballesta f Basque: balezta Belarusian: арбале́т m (arbaljét), самастрэ́л m (samastrél) Bulgarian: арбале́т (bg) m (arbalét) Burmese: ဒူးလေး (my) (du:le:) Buryat: һаали (haali) Catalan: ballesta (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 弩 (zh) (nǔ) Czech: kuše (cs) f Danish: armbrøst (da) c Dutch: kruisboog (nl) m Esperanto: arbalesto Estonian: amb, vibupüss, arbalett, pandpüss Finnish: varsijousi (fi), jalkajousi (fi) French: arbalète (fr) f Galician: bésta (gl) f German: Armbrust (de) f Alemannic German: Armbruscht f Greek: βαλλίστρα (el) f (vallístra) Ancient: γαστραφέτης m (gastraphétēs) Hebrew: קשת מוצלבת‎ f (késhet mutslévet) Hungarian: számszeríj (hu) Icelandic: lásbogi m Irish: crosbhogha m Italian: balestra (it) f Japanese: 弩 (ja) (いしゆみ, ishiyumi), クロスボウ (ja) (kurosubō), ボウガン (ja) (bōgan) Jarai: hraŏ Kazakh: арбалет (arbalet) Khmer: ស្នា (km) (snaa) Korean: 석궁(石弓) (ko) (seokgung) Lao: ໜ້າໄມ້ (nā mai) Latin: disputed, possibly arcuballista f or manuballista f; Mediaeval arballista f Latvian: stops (lv) m, arbalets m Lithuanian: arbaletas m Luxembourgish: Fitschebou m, Aarmbroscht f Lü: ᦂᦱᧂᧈ (k̇aang¹), ᦒᦓᦴ (thnuu), ᦡᧄᦺᦙᧉ (ḋammay²) Macedonian: са́мострел m (sámostrel), та́тарник m (tátarnik) Malagasy: arbaleta Maltese: qaws mimdud m Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: armbrøst m Nynorsk: armbrøst m Occitan: please add this translation if you can Old Portuguese: baesta Persian: کمان زنبورکی‎ (kamân-e zanburaki) Polish: kusza (pl) f, samostrzał m Portuguese: besta (pt) f Romanian: arbaletă (ro) f Romansch: balester m (Rumantsch Grischun, Sutsilvan, Surmiran), ballester m (Sursilvan), balaister m (Puter, Vallader) Russian: арбале́т (ru) m (arbalét), самостре́л (ru) m (samostrél) Scottish Gaelic: crois-bhogha f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: куша f, самострел m, стреломет m Roman: kuša (sh) f, samostrel m, strelomet m Shan: ၵၢင်ႇ (shn) (kàang) Slovak: kuša (sk) f Slovene: samostrel m Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: prokawa f Upper Sorbian: prokawa f Spanish: ballesta (es) f Swedish: armborst (sv) n Tagalog: pasulo, balyesta Thai: หน้าไม้ (th) (nâa-máai) Tibetan: please add this translation if you can Turkish: tatar yayı, arbalet (tr) Ukrainian: арбале́т (uk) m (arbalét), самострі́л m (samostríl) Vietnamese: ná (vi), nỏ (vi) Walloon: årbalesse (wa) f Welsh: bwa croes m White Hmong: hneev Yiddish: please add this translation if you can Zhuang: please add this translation if you can

See also

• arbalest

• Wikipedia article on crossbow