Other forms: battleships
A battleship is a very large heavily armoured warship. A battleship's guns, the last battleship, battleship grey.
The type was made obsolete by aircraft within a generation, and the last were retired in the 1990s after fifty years of finding jobs for them. The word is shortened from line-of-battle ship, from the line ships formed to fire broadsides.
1nounbattleshipA very large heavily armoured warship.
“The huge grey battleship fired its guns at the enemy coast.”
battleship is a ship.
Shortened from line-of-battle ship, attested in 1794, from the line formed to fire broadsides.
From battle + ship; shortened from line-of-battle ship, attested 1794.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA