muff pistol

English

Etymology

muff +‎ pistol

Noun

muff pistol (plural muff pistols)

  1. (historical) A small flintlock gun, usually for women, which can be hidden in a muff (hand-warmer).
    • 2006, Elisabeth Israels Perry and Jennifer Ann Price, expanatory note for An American girl, and her four years in a boys' college by Olive San Louie Anderson, page 203:
      A century earlier [than the 1870s], women in dangerous professions, such as tending bar or prostitution, carried a “lady's muff pistol.”
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