Definition of "battle cruiser" []

• A large warship with lighter armor but greater maneuverability than a battleship. (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.

• "In the distance behind it Kirk could glimpse the deadly silver angularity of the Klingon battle cruiser Rapache, which had arrived at the base inexplicably early and was now in orbit, hanging like a hawk upon the winds of night."
• "The U.S.S. Enterprise, along with the Klingon battle cruiser Klothos, had barely succeeded in escaping from the mysterious triangle and the equally peculiar rift in the space-time continuum it was now known to harbor."
• "In 1913, for example, Vickers completed Kongo, then the finest battle cruiser in the world, for Japan."