Definitions

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

  • noun A governmental establishment for the storing, development, manufacturing, testing, or repairing of arms, ammunition, and other war materiel.
  • noun A stock of weapons.
  • noun A store or supply.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A repository or magazine of arms and military stores of all kinds, whether for land or naval service.
  • noun A public establishment where naval and military engines or warlike equipments are manufactured.
  • noun Figuratively, a repository of any kind of equipment.

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

  • noun A public establishment for the storage, or for the manufacture and storage, of arms and all military equipments, whether for land or naval service.

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

  • noun A military establishment for the storing, development, manufacturing, testing, or repairing of arms, ammunition, and other war materiel; an armoury.
  • noun A stock of weapons, especially all the weapons that a nation possesses.
  • noun A store or supply of anything.

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

  • noun a place where arms are manufactured
  • noun all the weapons and equipment that a country has
  • noun a military structure where arms and ammunition and other military equipment are stored and training is given in the use of arms

Etymologies

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

[Italian arsenale, from obsolete arzanale, darsena, from Arabic aṣ-ṣinā‘a, manufacture, industry, and dār aṣ-ṣinā‘a, place of manufacture : dār, house (from dāra, to turn, revolve; see dwr in Semitic roots) + al-, the + ṣinā‘a, manufacture (from ṣana‘a, to make; see ṣnע in Semitic roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Italian arzenale, also French arsenal, from Arabic دار الصناعة (dār aṣ-ṣināʕa, "manufacturing shop").

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Examples

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  • The word was first used by Venetians in the early 12th century for their shipbuilding works. They themselves borrowed it from the Arabic dar as-sina'ah ("house of manufacture").

    July 30, 2008