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- (historical) A battering ram on a warship.
1824, C Irving, A Catechism of Grecian Antiquities; being an Account of the Religion, Government, Judicial Proceedings, Military and Naval Affairs, Dress, Food, Baths, Exercises, Marriages, Funerals, Coins, Weights, Measures, &c. of the Greeks: To which is Prefixed, a Description of the Cities of Athens and Sparta. With Engraved Illustrations, 2nd American edition, New York, N.Y.: F. & R. Lockwood, No. 154 Broadway, book IV, page 93:The chief warlike engines used in the Grecian ships, were the Embolon, the Catastromata, and the Delphin. […] The Embolon was a beak of wood fortified with brass, which projected from the lower part of the prow, so as to pierce the enemy's ships under water.
1956, Jean de La Varende, Cherish the Sea: A History of Sail:At this period the beak, the embolon (30a), is shortened, while the ship itself is lengthened. The beak is now primarily designed for ramming and it looks as though the supports are strong enough to stand the shock. Above it, two little armoured beams, the pre-embolon (c), whose aim was to shatter the upperworks while the lower beak burrowed into the fragile hull.
1992, American Journal of Numismatics, American Numismatic Society:The prow ends with an embolon, very long as is the case for all Phoenician galleys.
2006, Richard Francis Burton, The Book of the Sword:The torpedo is still the old, old petard; the spur of the ironclad is the long-disused embolon, rostrum, or beak; […]
- (historical) A military formation, usually shaped like a wedge.
1781 November, “A System of Tactics, practical, theoretical and historical. Translated from the French of M. Joly de Maizeroy, by Thomas Mante, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. 13s. boards. Cadell.”, in The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature, volume 52, London: Printed for A. Hamilton, in Falcon-Court, Fleet-Street, pages 376–377:Xenophon, it is true, ſays, word for word, in his account of the battle of Mantinea, that "Epaminondas formed an embolon of infantry, which which he advanced to ſhock the enemy, as one galley does another with its beak." […] In this paſſage, I cannot think the word embolon means any more than a vast ſquadron of great depth; and what ſhould hinder our underſtanding it, when ſpoken of infantry, in the ſame ſenſe?
1833, J. M., “The United Service Journal”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 434:Epaminondas himself, were he to rise from the dead, would be amazed to see the soldiers of his wedge, or embolon, struck mangled to the ground by the fire.
1890, Theodore Ayrault Dodge, Alexander: A History of the Origin and Growth of the Art of War from the Earliest Times to the Battle of Ipsus, 301 BC, with a Detailed Account of the Campaigns of the Great Macedonian, Boston, Mass.: Houghton, Mifflin, →OCLC, page 148:Embolon, or Wedge. [caption of illustration]
- (rare, archaic) Anything wedge-shaped.
1877, Pisanus Fraxi [pseudonym; Henry Spencer Ashbee], “Introduction”, in Index Librorum Prohibitoru: Bio- Biblio- Icono- graphical and Critical Notes on Curious and Uncommon Books, London: Privately printed, →OCLC, page xliv:The machine represented in the frontispiece to this work, was invented for Mrs. Berkley to flog gentlemen upon, in the spring of 1828. […] There is a print in Mrs. Berkley's memoirs, representing a man upon it quite naked. A woman is sitting in a chair exactly under it, with her bosom, belly, and bush exposed: she is manualizing his embolon [plug], whilst Mrs. Berkley is birching his posteriors.
2000, Elena C. Partida, The Treasuries at Delphi , Jonsered, Sweden: Paul Åströms Förlag, →OCLC, page 36:For the protection of the marble's fine texture, surfaces subject to weathering (e.g. antae) were covered in a coloured wash. Dove-tail clamps with an embolon bind the treasury's blocks; similar clamps without an embolon bind the ashlars of the stereobate.
1980, Bryon C. P. Tsangadas, The Fortifications and Defense of Constantinople, page 31:There can be little doubt that the Pteron, which Nicephorus calls the "proteichisma of Blachernae" is the same as the structure the Chronicon Paschale refers to as the "embolon." The "embolon" of one was the Pteron of the other.