pre-dreadnought

• predreadnought

pre- +‎ dreadnought

A diagram of the pre-dreadnought Mikasa, showing its four big guns and many smaller quick-firing weapons.

pre-dreadnought (plural pre-dreadnoughts)

1. (nautical, military, historical) A late 19th-century or early 20th-century battleship with a small number of big guns (typically no more than four) and a large number of quick-firing medium-caliber guns. It was made largely obsolete in 1906 by the dreadnought type of battleship.

• semi-dreadnought