Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A claymore mine.
  • noun A large, double-edged broadsword formerly used by Scottish Highlanders.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun . The name, in the Highlands of Scotland, of the heavy two-handed sword.
  • noun A name given inaccurately in the eighteenth century to the basket-hilted broadsword made to be used with one hand, and closely resembling the cuirassier's broadsword of the seventeenth century in England.
  • noun A soldier armed with a claymore.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A large two-handed sword used formerly by the Scottish Highlanders.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A large two-handed sword historically used by the Scottish Highlanders.
  • noun The Scottish basket-hilted broadsword used during the early modern period.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a large double-edged broadsword; formerly used by Scottish Highlanders
  • noun an antipersonnel land mine whose blast is aimed at the oncoming enemy

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Scottish Gaelic claidheamh mór, large sword : claidheamh, sword (from Old Irish claideb) + mór, great (from Old Irish; see mē- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Scottish Gaelic claidheamh ("sword") + mòr ("great").

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Examples

  • “I used to like the big sword claymore, but now … now they have to make them all splody and full of — what do you call that stuff, Nemain?”

    A Dirty Job HTML Moore, Christopher 2006

  • The Highlanders love to use cold steel; the claymore was their old weapon, and the bayonet is its nearest equivalent in modern war.

    A Minstrel in France Harry Lauder 1910

  • I dropped a claymore land mine right in front of him, and he still knifed me, said Spc.

    Battle-based gaming a hit in war zone 2011

  • H, Carefully place claymore mine curved side towards the Bear.

    Bears Kill Colorado Woman Who Fed Them 2009

  • Claims went back to unit after escape, treatment, and took a DH18 claymore hit.

    Eugene Giese 2010

  • I dropped a claymore land mine right in front of him, and he still knifed me, said Spc.

    Battle-based gaming a hit in war zone 2011

  • H, Carefully place claymore mine curved side towards the Bear.

    Bears Kill Colorado Woman Who Fed Them 2009

  • La Forge was amused to note that where Picard used to have a fish tank, Scotty had a shield and a couple of claymore swords.

    Star Trek The Next Generation® David A. McIntee 2011

  • I remember being pretty amazed by just how deadly the claymore was - might have been the deadliest melee weapon they showed, if I recall correctly.

    More Odds, More Ends grrm 2010

  • La Forge was amused to note that where Picard used to have a fish tank, Scotty had a shield and a couple of claymore swords.

    Star Trek The Next Generation® David A. McIntee 2011

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