[ noun ] a large wine bottle for liquor or wine <noun.artifact>
Magnum \Mag"num\ (m[a^]g"n[u^]m), n. [Neut. sing. of L. magnus great.] 1. A large wine bottle.
They passed the magnum to one another freely. --Sir W. Scott.
2. (Anat.) A bone of the carpus at the base of the third metacarpal bone.
3. A magnum pistol, or the cartridge such a pistol uses; as, he always carried a .44 magnum. [PJC]
magnum \mag"num\ (m[a^]g"n[u^]m), a. 1. (Firearms) Having a larger charge than usual for a cartridge of the same caliber; -- of cartridges for handgun; as, a .44 magnum cartridge. [PJC]
2. (Firearms) Designed to use a cartridge with a larger charge than usual for handguns of the same caliber; -- of handguns; as, a .44 magnum pistol. [PJC]
The wine in the $3,200 bottle was an acclaimed 1984 merlot, but there was something even rarer about the Cuvaison magnum that Texan Steven Schwartz bought at a recent Dallas charity auction.
A collector from Marina del Rey offered the highest bid of the day, topping $11,800 paid by a Canadian for an Imperial of 1924 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and $11,200 by a Sacramento resident for a rare magnum of Chateau Lafite 1864.