flintlock

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
It was the military flintlock, a clumsy gun, better suited to scare crows than shoot straight, but it was the best we had A warning, a signal for some purpose, I judged, because it was followed by what I can only describe as a waiting silence.

View all »
Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun An obsolete gunlock in which a flint fixed in the hammer produces a spark that ignites the charge.
  2. noun A firearm having this type of gunlock. Also called firelock.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Henry busied himself cleaning his flintlock, blowing dirt out of the priming pan and filling it with powder. —  F ;SF - vol 102 issue 04 - April 2002
  • Its firing mechanism used the relatively new cap-and-ball system, far faster and more reliable than the old flintlock, and Crockett felt well pleased with the result. —  Three Roads to Alamo
  • Assemblyman Reed Gusciora's bill would exempt antique and muzzleloading firearms that use a traditional flintlock or cap lock and rely on black powder. —  CourierPostOnline.com - News
  • Dave took the shotgun an' pap has grandpap's flintlock, but Billy didn't have a gun. —  The Long Roll
  • He had an old flintlock, but in his dream he did not like it, and it changed to one of the beautiful modern rifles they were beginning to take from the Yankees. —  The Long Roll
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 58 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a year.

Recently looked up

tactic · flintlock · frisee · tacos · bunker

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

qualms · poofter · oh for heaven's sake · embodies · silence