Forms: α. 4 trepejette, trepget, 4–5 -eget, 5 trepgett(e, trip-, trypgette, 6 trepegett, -gete, trepa-; β. 4–5 tri-, tre-, treybochet; 5 trebget (err. -got); 6 trabu-, 7 trebuschet, (8–9 trebucket), 8– trebuchet. [In I, a. OF. trebuchet, also trebuket, -busket, trabuchet (12th c. in Godef.) siege-engine, bird-trap, mod.F. trébuchet trap, balance (= Prov. trabuquet, Sp. trabuquete, It. trabocchetto, med.L. trā-, trēbuchētum, Du Cange), f. OF. tre-, tres-, trabucher (11th c.) to overturn, overthrow, stumble, fall, in med.L. trābuchāre: see TRABUCH. The early α-forms are imitations of OF. trebuchet. The word was obsolete in the 16th c.; from 18th c. historical and antiquarian. Sense 3 is from mod.Fr. In II, an application, in England, of med.L. trēbuchētum (see above), to the device known popularly from c. 1200 as cuck-stool, cucking-stool. The Latin form remained app. as a legal term, rendered trebuchet in 17th c. by the legal antiquaries.
Cf. 1611. Cotgr., Trebuchet, a pitfall for birds; a pit, with a trap doore, for wild beasts; also, a paire of gold weights; also, an old-fashioned Engine of wood, from which great, and battering stones were most violently throwne.]
I. 1. A mediæval military engine for casting heavy missiles. Hist.
Described as consisting of a pivoted lever with a sling at one extremity, which was strained back against a heavy counterpoise, and then suddenly released. Cf. CATAPULT 1.
[1224. Close Roll 8 Hen. III., m. 4 Facias usque Doura maeremium ad trubechetum nostrum faciendum. Ibid., 9 Hen. III., m. 24. viij. Roellas ereas quas fieri fecistis at trubechettum nostrum.
1377. Rolls of Parlt., III. 10/2. Un trebuchet outre ascun mesure qe l’en avoit unqes veeu.]
α. 13[?]. Coer de L., 5227. With trepeiettes they slungen alsoo.
1388. Wyclif, 1 Macc. vi. 20. Thei maden arblastis, [gloss] ether trepeiettis, that is, an instrument for to caste schaftis, and stoonys.
c. 1400. [see MANGONEL].
c. 1420. Brut, 428. The Kynge … leid therto his grete Gounnys, Trepgettis and Engenys, and bete adowne the wallis.
1520. Caxton’s Chron. Eng., VII. 145/1. Gonnes, Engynnes, and trypgettes [1482 trip-].
1599. Thynne, Animadv. (1875), 41. ‘Trepegett’ you expounde ‘a Ramme to batter walles.’ But the trepegete was the same that the mogonell.
[1896. Eng. Hist. Rev., April, 357. Eustace the monk was taken, and Stephen of Winchelsea … gave him his choice of having his head cut off on the trapget or the bulwarks [rather of being hurled from the trapget or having his head cut off on the bulwarks].]
β. a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1296. With traumes & with tribochetis þe tild to asaile.
c. 1400. Siege of Troy, 838, in Archiv neu. Spr., LXXII. 33. An hundrid gynnys þer were vpset, Of Maungeneles and Treybochet.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 501/1. Trebget, for werre (S. trepgette), trabucetum.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, VIII. 198. Who kneeling by the trebuchet, Charged its long sling with death.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, viii. ‘Well driven, trebuchet—well flown, quarrel!’ cried the monk.
1885. C. W. C. Oman, Art of War, 57. The feeble siege-artillery of the day, perrieres, catapults, trebuchets, and so forth.
† 2. A trap or gin to catch small birds or beasts. Obs. rare. (So in Fr. from 14th c.)
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. XII. 86. Þou tomblest wiþ a trepget ȝif þou my tras folwe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 501/1. Trebget [pr. -got], sly instrument to take brydys or beestys (S. trepgette), tendicule.
3. A small delicately poised balance or pair of scales; an assay balance; a tilting scale. (So Fr.)
1550. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 105/1. Par de lie trabuschettis 15 sol.
1613. Bp. Forbes, Comm. Rev. xviii. § 6. 191. It is a hard thing to fall into the hands of the Lord: before whom all Nations are but as the droppe of a Bucket, or as the dust of a Trebuschet.
1871. M. C. Lea, Photogr., 420. The French pattern of ‘trebuchet,’ or tilting scale, now largely manufactured here.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Trebucket.
II. 4. An instrument of punishment, = CUCKING-STOOL, q.v.
[c. 1200. Chron. of Jocelin de Brakelond (Camden), 38. Levaverunt homines de Illegga quoddam trebuchet, ad faciendam justiciam pro falsis mensuris panis vel bladi mensurandi.
1266–7[?]. Judicium Pillorie, in Stat. Realm (1870), I. 201/1. Paciatur judicium corporis, scilicet, Pistor Collistrigium, et Braciatrix trebuchetum vel castigatorium.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 107/1. Cukstole, for flyterys,… turbuscetum, cadurca.
1500. Ortus Vocab., Terbichetum, a cokstole.]
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Hundred of Berkeley (1885), 143. Cucking stool and other Judicials, Collistrigia et trebuchets.
1667. E. Chamberlayne, Pres. St. Eng., I. (1684), 48. Scolding women are to be set in a Trebuchet, commonly called a Cuckingstool … placed over some deep water into which they are let down and plunged under water thrice.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. xiii. 169. A common scold,… if convicted, shall be sentenced to be placed in a certain engine of correction called the trebucket, castigatory, or cucking stool.
1867. Cornh. Mag., Jan., 38. A homely provision made for the punishment of mere bad language in the bridle and trebuchet or ducking-stool.
