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Pronunciation varies by accent · noun
(historical) A stick with a line attached that was fired from a musket to a ship that had foundered..
Colonel Delvigne, of the French army, invented a life-arrow, to be fired from an ordinary musket.
Numerous life-arrows, kites and similar devices have been invented to carry lines to wrecked vessels, but none has proved superior to the Lyle gun.
There was a contrivance for rendering the rope visible to the crew, and another to assist those on shore to descry the exact position of the ship in distress. The life-arrow, a cue-shaped stick of mahogany, with the thinner end projecting beyond the end of the barrel, is fired from an ordinary musket, and can carry 80 yards with a mackerel line attached.
Use life-arrow when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Life-arrow means (historical) A stick with a line attached that was fired from a musket to a ship that had foundered..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
Colonel Delvigne, of the French army, invented a life-arrow, to be fired from an ordinary musket.
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