(historical) A type of bronze used for making cannons.
An alloy of 88% copper, 10% tin and 2% zinc, originally used for making guns.
- Gunmetals are alloys of copper, tin and zinc, formerly used for casting cannon. With lead additions they become suitable as bearing materials and are called leaded gunmetals (the US term is leaded red brass); they are quite often misnamed bronzes.
(also attributive) A dark grey or bluish-grey colour; gunmetal grey.