Improvised weapon in the context of "Stick fighting"

A weapon, arm, or armament is any implement or device that is used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime (e.g., murder), law enforcement, self-defense, warfare, or suicide. In a broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a tactical, strategic, material, or mental advantage over an adversary or enemy target.

While ordinary objects such as rocks and bottles can be used as weapons, many objects are expressly designed for the purpose; these range from simple implements such as clubs and swords to complicated modern firearms, tanks, missiles and biological weapons. Something that has been repurposed, converted, or enhanced to become a weapon of war is termed weaponized, such as a weaponized virus or weaponized laser.

Technology during World War I (1914–1918) reflected a trend toward industrialism and the application of mass-production methods to weapons and to the technology of warfare in general. This trend began at least fifty years prior to World War I during the American Civil War of 1861–1865; this continued through many smaller conflicts in which soldiers and strategists tested new weapons.

World War I weapons included types standardised and improved over the preceding period, together with some newly developed types using innovative technology and a number of improvised weapons used in trench warfare. Military technology of the time included important innovations in machine guns, grenades, and artillery, along with essentially new weapons such as submarines, poison gas, warplanes and tanks.

A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – see § Etymology) is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flammable liquids sealed with a cloth wick). In use, the fuse attached to the container is lit and the weapon is thrown, shattering on impact. This ignites the flammable substances contained in the bottle and spreads flames as the fuel burns.

Due to their relative ease of production, Molotov cocktails are typically improvised weapons. Their improvised usage spans criminals, gangsters, rioters, football hooligans, urban guerrillas, terrorists, irregular soldiers, freedom fighters, and even regular soldiers; usage in the latter case is often due to a shortage of equivalent military-issued munitions. Despite the weapon's improvised nature and uncertain quality, many modern militaries exercise the use of Molotov cocktails.

Arnis, also known as kali or eskrima/escrima, is the national martial art of the Philippines. These three terms are, sometimes, interchangeable in referring to traditional martial arts of the Philippines ("Filipino Martial Arts", or FMA), which emphasize weapon-based fighting with sticks, knives, bladed weapons, and various improvised weapons, as well as "open hand" techniques without weapons.

There were campaigns for arnis along with other Philippine martial arts to be nominated in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists; and as of 2018, UNESCO has inscribed nine martial-arts-related intangible heritages.