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A light kind of crossbow; -- in the sense, often spelled prodd. Fairholt.

A crossbow. See Prod, 3.

An arrow for a crossbow; -- so named because it commonly had a square head. [Obs.] To shoot with arrows and quarrel. Sir J. Mandeville. Two arblasts, . . . with windlaces and quarrels. Sir W. Scott.

To frighten; to strike with sudden fear; to alarm. The noise of thy crossbow Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost. Shak. To scare away, to drive away by frightening. -- To scare up, to find by search, as if by beating for game. [Slang]

The position of a man who is found at his standing in the forest, with a crossbow or a longbow bent, ready to shoot at a deer, or close by a tree with greyhounds in a leash ready to slip; -- one of the four presumptions that a man intends stealing the king's deer. Wharton.

A kind of crossbow formerly used for shooting stones. Shak.

The stalk, or handle, of a crossbow; also, sometimes, the bow itself. [Obs.] You can shoot in a tiller. Beau. & Fl.

An arrow, having a rotary motion, formerly used with the crossbow. Cf. Vireton. Gower.

An arrow or bolt for a crossbow having feathers or brass placed at an angle with the shaft to make it spin in flying.

A hissing and humming sound. Like the whiz of my crossbow. Coleridge.

An apparatus resembling a winch or windlass, for bending the bow of an arblast, or crossbow. [Obs.] Shak. Chinese windlass. See Differential windlass, under Differential.