Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
side arm ExamplesWord Origin noun Military.
- a weapon, as a pistol or sword, carried at the side or in the belt.
Origin of side arm First recorded in 1680–90 Examples from the Web for side arm Historical Examples of side arm
He didn’t go to his cabin; didn’t even take off his side-arm.
E. E. Smith
On one of these doors Leicester was hammering with his side-arm, the Portuguese standing by on the step below.
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
Dirk, dėrk, n. a Highland dagger or poniard: a side-arm worn by midshipmen and cadets of the royal navy.
Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D)
Various
Jack noticed that a Bavarian helmet and side-arm hung from the knapsack of one, a mere freckled lad, downy and dimpled.
Robert W. Chambers
Others to the Old-German, Laz, from latus; the weapon being therefore a “side-arm.”
Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe
John Hewitt