[f. mod.L. Columbia (see next) + -AD.]
1. An epic of America. [Madame du Boccage (1710–1802) wrote an epic in French with the title La Colombiade.]
1798. J. L. Moore (title), The Columbiad: an Epic Poem on the discovery of America and the West Indies by Columbus.
1807. J. Barlow (title), The Columbiad; a Poem.
2. A kind of heavy cast-iron cannon or howitzer formerly used in the U.S. army.
1861. W. H. Russell, in Times, 14 May. The columbiad guns with which this battery is equipped bear on the south wall of Sumter at an angle…. The columbiad is a kind of Dahlgren—that is, a piece of ordnance very thick in the breech, and lightened off gradually from the trunnions to the muzzle.
1880. Libr. Univ. Knowl., IV. 161. The howitzer shell-guns were remodeled in 1844, when the larger gun was first named columbiad.
