star shell
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Noun edit
star shell (plural star shells)
- (military) A type of ammunition shell which bursts to release a shower of stars for illuminating enemy positions etc.
- 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin, published 2013, page 260:
- Twilight deepened, and a flicker of star-shells wavered in the sky beyond Béthune.
- 1929, Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune, Vintage, published 2014, page 5:
- The sky flickered with the flash of guns, and an occasional star-shell flooded their path with light.
- 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 351:
- To deprive the enemy of any advantage they might gain at night, he had star shells which could light up the entire countryside.