dreadnought

dreadnought

English

Alternative forms

• dreadnaught

Etymology

Named after HMS Dreadnought, the first battleship finished of this type, from dread +‎ nought, i.e. fearing nothing.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹɛd.nɔt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːt

Noun

dreadnought (plural dreadnoughts)

1. (military, nautical, historical) A battleship, especially of the World War I era, in which most of the firepower is concentrated in large guns that are of the same caliber.
   • 2018 October 17, Drachinifel, Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918‎, archived from the original on 4 August 2022, retrieved 16 October 2022, 18:32 from the start:

     Perturbed at being overtaken, the USS Texas is leading the 6th Battle Squadron at 22-and-a-half knots as the engineers pour everything they have into the effort. Behind the colossal clouds of smoke and cinders they put out come a seemingly-endless stream of dreadnoughts, battle flags flying from every mast and line they can find. It is the Grand Fleet.

2. (informal) A type of warship heavier in armour or armament than a typical battleship.
   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, OCLC 246633669, PC, scene: Sovereign Codex entry:

     Sovereign is the flagship of the rogue Spectre Saren. An enormous dreadnought larger than any other ship in any known fleet, Sovereign is crewed with both geth and krogan. At two kilometers long, its spinal-mounted main gun is likely capable of penetrating another dreadnought's kinetic barriers with a single shot.

3. (music) A type of acoustic guitar with a very large body and a waist that is less pronounced than on other guitar shapes, producing a deep, bold sound.
4. One that is the largest or the most powerful of its kind.
5. A garment made of thick woollen cloth that can defend against storm and cold.
   • 1853, Charles Dickens, chapter 7, in Bleak House:

     "Much obliged to you, ma'am!" says Mr. Guppy, divesting himself of his wet dreadnought in the hall.

6. The cloth itself; fearnaught.
7. A person who fears nothing.
8. Something that assures against fear.

Derived terms

• Dreadnoughtus
• pre-dreadnought, predreadnought
• semi-dreadnought, semidreadnought
• super-dreadnought, superdreadnought

Translations

battleship

Arabic: دريدنوت‎ Belarusian: дрэдно́ўт m (drednóŭt) Bulgarian: дредноут m (drednout) Catalan: cuirassat (ca) m, dreadnought Chinese: Mandarin: 无畏舰 (zh) (wúwèijiàn) Dutch: slagschip (nl) n French: dreadnought (fr) m Georgian: დრედნოუტი (drednouṭi), ჯავშნოსანი გემი (ǯavšnosani gemi) German: Schlachtschiff (de) m Hebrew: דְּרֶדְנוֹט‎ (he) m (drednot) Japanese: ドレッドノート (doreddonōto) Korean: 드레드노트 (deuredeunoteu) Lithuanian: drednoutas Persian: دریدنوت‎ Polish: drednot (pl) m Russian: дредно́ут (ru) m (drednóut) Thai: เดรดนอต Turkish: dretnot (tr)

See also

• aircraft carrier
• battleship
• corvette
• cruiser
• destroyer
• frigate
• gunboat
• monitor
• sloop
• battleship on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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French

Etymology

From English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʁɛd.nɔt/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

dreadnought m (plural dreadnoughts)

1. dreadnought (battleship in which most of the firepower is concentrated in large guns that are of the same caliber)

Further reading

• “dreadnought”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English dreadnought.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdrɛd.not/
• Rhymes: -ɛdnot

Noun

dreadnought f (invariable)

1. dreadnought (battleship in which most of the firepower is concentrated in large guns that are of the same caliber)

Further reading

• dreadnought in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana