Shot, n.; pl. Shotor Shots
 1. The act of shooting; discharge of a firearm or other weapon which throws a missile.
    He caused twenty shot of his greatest cannon to be made at the king's army.   --Clarendon.
 2. A missile weapon, particularly a ball or bullet; specifically, whatever is discharged as a projectile from firearms or cannon by the force of an explosive.
 Note: ☞ Shot used in war is of various kinds, classified according to the material of which it is composed, into lead, wrought-iron, and cast-iron; according to form, into spherical and oblong; according to structure and modes of operation, into solid, hollow, and case. See Bar shot, Chain shot, etc., under Bar, Chain, etc.
 3. Small globular masses of lead, of various sizes, -- used chiefly as the projectiles in shotguns for killing game; as, bird shot; buckshot.
 4. The flight of a missile, or the distance which it is, or can be, thrown; as, the vessel was distant more than a cannon shot.
 5. A marksman; one who practices shooting; as, an exellent shot.
 6. Fisheries (a) A cast of a net. (b) The entire throw of nets at one time. (c) A place or spot for setting nets. (d) A single draft or catch of fish made.
 7.  Athletics A spherical weight, to be put, or thrown, in competition for distance.
 8.  A stroke, throw, or other action to propel a ball or other game piece in certain games, as in billiards, hockey, basketball, curling, etc.; also, a move, as in chess.
 9.  A guess; conjecture; also, an attempt. [Colloq.] “I'll take a shot at it.”
 Shot belt, a belt having a pouch or compartment for carrying shot.
 Shot cartridge, a cartridge containing powder and small shot, forming a charge for a shotgun.
 Shot garland Naut., a wooden frame to contain shot, secured to the coamings and ledges round the hatchways of a ship.
 Shot gauge, an instrument for measuring the diameter of round shot. --Totten.
 shot hole, a hole made by a shot or bullet discharged.
 Shot locker Naut., a strongly framed compartment in the hold of a vessel, for containing shot.
 Shot of a cable Naut., the splicing of two or more cables together, or the whole length of the cables thus united.
 Shot prop Naut., a wooden prop covered with tarred hemp, to stop a hole made by the shot of an enemy in a ship's side.
 Shot tower, a lofty tower for making shot, by dropping from its summit melted lead in slender streams. The lead forms spherical drops which cool in the descent, and are received in water or other liquid.
 Shot window, a window projecting from the wall. Ritson, quoted by Halliwell, explains it as a window that opens and shuts; and Wodrow describes it as a window of shutters made of timber and a few inches of glass above them.


 Tow·er n.
 1. Arch. (a) A mass of building standing alone and insulated, usually higher than its diameter, but when of great size not always of that proportion. (b) A projection from a line of wall, as a fortification, for purposes of defense, as a flanker, either or the same height as the curtain wall or higher. (c) A structure appended to a larger edifice for a special purpose, as for a belfry, and then usually high in proportion to its width and to the height of the rest of the edifice; as, a church tower.
 2. A citadel; a fortress; hence, a defense.
    Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.   --Ps. lxi. 3.
 3. A headdress of a high or towerlike form, fashionable about the end of the seventeenth century and until 1715; also, any high headdress.
 Lay trains of amorous intrigues
 In towers, and curls, and periwigs.   --Hudibras.
 4. High flight; elevation. [Obs.]
 Gay Lussac's tower Chem., a large tower or chamber used in the sulphuric acid process, to absorb (by means of concentrated acid) the spent nitrous fumes that they may be returned to the Glover's tower to be reemployed. See Sulphuric acid, under Sulphuric, and Glover's tower, below.
 Glover's tower Chem., a large tower or chamber used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, to condense the crude acid and to deliver concentrated acid charged with nitrous fumes. These fumes, as a catalytic, effect the conversion of sulphurous to sulphuric acid. See Sulphuric acid, under Sulphuric, and Gay Lussac's tower, above.
 Round tower. See under Round, a.
 Shot tower. See under Shot.
 Tower bastion Fort., a bastion of masonry, often with chambers beneath, built at an angle of the interior polygon of some works.
 Tower mustard Bot., the cruciferous plant Arabis perfoliata.
 Tower of London, a collection of buildings in the eastern part of London, formerly containing a state prison, and now used as an arsenal and repository of various objects of public interest.


 shot tower
      n : tower of a kind once used to make shot; molten lead was
          poured through a sieve and dropped into water