[f. BROAD a. + SWORD.] ‘A cutting sword with a broad blade’ (J.). Also attrib.
[a. 1500. Byrhtnoth, 15 (Gr.). Ða he healdan mihte brad swurd.]
c. 1565. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron., an. 1559. The master of Lindsay struck him on the head with a broad-sword.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 243. The Highland broad-sword is still called an Andrew Ferrara.
1799. Rowlandson (title), Hungarian and Highland Broadsword Exercise.
1843. Prescott, Mexico, I. 359. They killed two of the horses, cutting through their necks with their stout broadswords … at a blow.
b. transf. (pl.) Men armed with broadswords.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 330. Lochiel, surrounded by more than six hundred broadswords.
c. Comb., as broadsword-shaped adj.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 22. The scapula, a broadsword-shaped bone.
