Definition
An instrument capable of use in offensive or defensive combat. In law, the term appears most frequently in criminal statutes regulating the carrying, possession, or use of weapons — particularly those prohibiting concealed weapons, deadly weapons, or dangerous weapons. The legal significance of the word almost never turns on a single universal definition; instead, it depends entirely on the statutory language being applied.
Three overlapping but distinct legal uses appear across sources:
1. WEAPON IN THE GENERAL SENSE: Any instrument used, intended, or capable of being used to inflict harm or to attack or defend in a physical confrontation. Under this broad reading, staves, sticks, stones, and other improvised instruments qualify alongside firearms and bladed instruments.
2. DEADLY WEAPON: A weapon capable of causing death or serious bodily injury, either by design (a firearm, a knife) or by manner of use (a bottle, a vehicle). Whether an object qualifies as a deadly weapon is often a question of fact for the jury. This is the operative category in most serious criminal charges.
3. CONCEALED WEAPON: A weapon carried on the person in a manner not visible to ordinary observation. Statutes prohibiting concealed carry were among the earliest weapons regulations in American law and remain a distinct regulatory category today.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To equip with a weapon; to arm. [verb form]
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): An instrument of offensive or defensive combat; something to fight with; anything used or designed to be used in destroying, defeating, or injuring an enemy, as a gun or sword. Also used figuratively as any means of contention.
The common meaning and the legal meaning align closely at the core — both point to instruments of combat and harm. The gap emerges at the margins. Everyday usage tends to conjure firearms and blades; legal usage explicitly extends to improvised objects (a stick, a thrown stone, a vehicle), and statutes frequently impose liability based on possession alone rather than use. A researcher relying on the intuitive meaning risks underestimating the scope of any given statutory definition.
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Common Confusion
WEAPON vs. DEADLY WEAPON vs. DANGEROUS WEAPON: These are related but not interchangeable legal terms. "Weapon" is the genus; "deadly" and "dangerous" are statutory qualifications that trigger enhanced penalties or distinct offenses. A weapon is not automatically a deadly weapon. Many jurisdictions define deadly weapon by statute; others leave it to case-by-case determination. Researchers should never assume that a case interpreting "deadly weapon" controls the meaning of "weapon" in a different statutory provision, or vice versa.
WEAPON vs. FIREARM: "Firearm" is a defined subcategory in both federal and state law and carries its own distinct regulatory framework. The two terms overlap but are not synonymous. An object can be a weapon without being a firearm; some statutes treat the two categories with entirely different penalties and defenses.
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Core Elements
Whether an object constitutes a "weapon" under a given statute typically turns on:
1. DESIGN OR PURPOSE: Was the object made to cause harm, or is it an ordinary object repurposed as a weapon?
2. CAPABILITY: Is the object capable of causing death or serious bodily injury, regardless of original purpose?
3. MANNER OF USE OR CARRYING: Did the defendant use, intend to use, or carry the object in a manner associated with combat or threat?
4. POSSESSION: Many statutes are triggered by possession alone, without any requirement that the weapon was used or even functional. Bouvier's notes explicitly that even a weapon not in perfect working order may satisfy a possession statute.
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Why It Matters in Research
The word "weapon" functions as a legal chameleon — its meaning is almost entirely statute-dependent. Historical sources define it broadly and then note that practical legal significance comes from the modifying adjectives in specific statutes (concealed, deadly, dangerous). Researchers working with older materials should watch for this structural pattern: the base definition is general; the legal work is done by the qualifier.
Corpus researchers should also note that weapons law has a pronounced constitutional dimension that was largely undeveloped in the nineteenth-century dictionaries. The Second Amendment cases of the twenty-first century have substantially restructured how courts analyze weapons regulations, including what objects receive constitutional protection and what regulatory schemes survive scrutiny. Historical dictionary entries predate this framework entirely and cannot be read as reliable guides to modern constitutional analysis.
In the employment law context, "economic weapons" is a term of art referring to strike and lockout activity — a usage entirely distinct from the physical-instrument meaning. Researchers moving across practice areas should be alert to this figurative legal application.
Jurisdictional variation is significant in practice. What counts as a deadly weapon, whether possession of an inoperable firearm triggers a weapons statute, and how concealed carry is defined all vary substantially by state. No single historical dictionary definition resolves these questions.
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Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries converge on the core definition: an instrument of offensive or defensive combat. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's are functionally identical on the basic formulation, with Bouvier's adding the useful observation that possession alone — even of an inoperable weapon — is sufficient to satisfy most statutes, citing Alabama and Mississippi authority.
Anderson's makes the most useful contribution among the historical sources by broadening the definition explicitly to include "staves, sticks, or other missiles, as well as fire-arms" and by connecting the term directly to the constitutional right to bear arms. This framing anticipates the modern doctrinal tension between broad statutory definitions and constitutional limits, though Anderson's treats that tension as essentially resolved in favor of police-regulation statutes — a treatment that is no longer adequate after twentieth- and twenty-first-century Second Amendment developments.
Webster's 1913 adds the figurative dimension ("the means or instrument with which one contends against another"), which survives in legal discourse primarily in the employment law usage of "economic weapons."
What the historical dictionaries do not address: specific intent requirements, the "designed or adapted" distinctions common in modern statutes, federal weapons classifications, and the constitutional framework that now governs weapons regulation. These gaps are substantial and limit the utility of these sources for any research touching modern weapons law.
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Jurisdictional Note
State weapons statutes vary widely in their definitions of deadly weapon, dangerous weapon, and concealed weapon. Federal law, including 18 U.S.C. § 921 et seq., provides its own defined categories for firearms and related objects that do not automatically align with state definitions. Researchers should identify and apply the controlling statutory definition for the jurisdiction at issue rather than relying on any general common-law or dictionary formulation.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Assault with a Deadly Weapon — Criminal Law Encyclopedia (criminal_39)
Weapons Offenses — Unlawful Possession — Criminal Law Encyclopedia (criminal_109)
Strikes, Lockouts, and Economic Weapons — Employment & Labor Law Encyclopedia (employment_92)
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