Definition of "hackbut" []

• See harquebus. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Halbert was aye skipping up and down like a roo, and his brother used to sit in the chimney nook with his book and sic-like trash — But the lad was like a loaded hackbut, which will stand in the corner as quiet as an old crutch until ye draw the trigger, and then there is nothing but flash and smoke. —"
• "A kitchen jack leaned against a pyx, a republican sabre on a mediaeval hackbut."
• "In the mean time, you may amuse yourself with my suspense, and put all the justices of peace in requisition, in case I come into your county with 'hackbut bent.'"