A song inciting to war, or celebrating martial deeds.
1757. [Burke], Europ. Settlem. Amer., I. II. iv. 182. The war songs are heard in all parts.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 159. The leader … singing the war-song, and beating the drum.
1818. Keats, Endym., III. 603. Despair sung A war-song of defiance ’gainst all hell.
1840. C. O. Müller’s Hist. Lit. Greece, xiii. § 3. 168. His war-songs express a stirring martial spirit.
1897. Henty, On Irrawaddy, 174. The Burmans … continued chanting a war-song, swaying themselves to its cadence.
