| MISSILE, | - | |
| MISSIVE, |
any weapon which is either thrown by the hand, or which strikes at a distance from the moving power.
MITRAILLE, Fr. small pieces of old iron, such as heads of nails, &c. with which pieces of ordnance are frequently loaded.
Tirer à Mitraille, Fr. To fire with grape shot. This term is frequently used by the French, to express the bribery which is practised in war time by one nation upon another, for the purpose of fomenting civil insurrections. Hence tirer à mitraille d’or.
| MITRE, | - | |
| MITER, |
a mode of joining two boards, or other pieces of wood together at right angles.
MOAT, A wet or dry ditch, dug round the walls of a town, or fortified place. When an enemy attacks a town, which has dry moats round it, the rampart must be approached by galleries under ground, which galleries are run beneath the moat; when the place is attempted through wet moats, your approaches must be made by galleries above ground, that is to say, by galleries raised above the surface of the water. The brink of the moat next the rampart is called the scarp, and the opposite one the counterscarp.
Dry-Moat, that which has no water. It should invariably be deeper than the one that is full of water.
Flat bottomed Moat, that which hath no sloping, its corners being somewhat rounded.
Lined Moat, that whose scarp and counterscarp are cased with a wall of mason work made aslope.