Also 6 fusill, 8–9 fuzil; and see FUSEE1. [a. F. fusil (OF. fuisil) = It. focile:—late L. *focīle, f. focus hearth (in pop. Lat. fire).]
† 1. A fire steel for a tinder-box. Obs.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Vn Fusil, a Fusill to strike fire in a tinder boxe.
2. A light musket or firelock.
1680. Eng. Milit. Discipl., I. 20. The Mousqueton is not so long as the Fusil or Fire-Lock.
1682. Lond. Gaz., No. 1684/1. Six Men of the tallest Stature, with long Fusils.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. xx. We were … armed with a fusil … each man.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), V. 137. The dew … had made his fusil rusty, and … he was scraping and cleaning it.
1847. Infantry Man. (1854), 28. Seize the fusil with the left hand.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., IV. xxxii. 555. The sentry snapped a fusil at him.
