Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AR'QUE-BUSE, or HAR'QUE-BUSE, n. [Fr. from arquer, to make crooked, and the Teutonic bus, a pipe, a gun; D. bus, a tube, pipe, gun; Sw. bossa, a gun or cannon. Hence the word signifies a hook gun.]

A hand gun; a species of fire-arms, anciently used, which was cocked with a wheel. It carried a ball that weighed nearly two ounces. A larger kind, used in fortresses, carried a ball of three ounces and a half. – Encyc.