Mar"ta*gon (?), n. [Cf. F. & Sp. martagon, It. martagone.] (Bot.) A
lily (Lilium Martagon) with purplish red flowers, found in Europe and
Asia.
Mar"tel (?), v. i. [F. marteler, fr. martel, marteau, hammer, a dim.
fr. L. martulus, marculus, dim. of marcus hammer. Cf. March to step.]
To make a blow with, or as with, a hammer. [Obs.] Spenser.
||Mar`tel` de fer" (?). [OF., hammer of iron.] A weapon resembling a
||hammer, often having one side of the head pointed; -- used by
||horsemen in the Middle Ages to break armor. Fairholt.
Mar"te*line (?), n. [F.] A small hammer used by marble workers and
sculptors.
Mar*tel"lo tow`er (?). [It. martello hammer. The name was orig. given
to towers erected on the coasts of Sicily and Sardinia for protection
against the pirates in the time of Charles the Fifth, which prob. orig.
contained an alarm bell to be struck with a hammer. See Martel.]
(Fort.) A building of masonry, generally circular, usually erected on
the seacoast, with a gun on the summit mounted on a traversing
platform, so as to be fired in any direction.
The English borrowed the name of the tower from Corsica in 1794.
Mar"ten (mär"tn), n. (Zoöl.) A bird. See Martin.
Mar"ten, n. [From older martern, marter, martre, F. martre, marte, LL.
martures (pl.), fr. L. martes; akin to AS. mearð, meard, G. marder,
OHG. mardar, Icel. mörðr. Cf. Foumart.] 1. (Zoöl.) Any one of several
fur-bearing carnivores of the genus Mustela, closely allied to the
sable. Among the more important species are the European beech, or
stone, marten (Mustela foina); the pine marten (M. martes); and the
American marten, or sable (M. Americana), which some zoölogists
consider only a variety of the Russian sable.