Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a short musket of wide bore with expanded muzzle to scatter shot, bullets, or slugs at close range.
- an insensitive, blundering person.
noun
- an obsolete short musket with large bore and flared muzzle, used to scatter shot at short range
- informal a clumsy unsubtle person
1650s, from Dutch donderbus, from donder “thunder” (Middle Dutch doner, donder, from Proto-Germanic *thunaraz; see thunder (n.)) + bus “gun” (originally “box, tube”); altered by resemblance to blunder.