gun-wad

Definitions

noun A wad for a gun; specifically, a circular wad, cut with an implement known as a wad-cutter out of pasteboard, cardboard, or felt, used as wadding to keep the ammunition in place either in a gun-barrel or in a paper or metal shell.

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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He knew Black Moran by reputation, and he knew that unless a miracle happened his own life was not a worth a gun-wad.

Connie Morgan in the Fur Country 1921
Our leader's pistol flashed a circle that drove the rabble back, and the ringleader went hurling head foremost through the main hatch with force like to flatten his skull to a gun-wad.

Heralds of Empire Being the Story of One Ramsay Stanhope, Lieutenant to Pierre Radisson in the Northern Fur Trade 1903
A man close to me picks up a black gun-wad an 'sings out,' I have ut, '--' Good may ut do you. 'sez I.

Indian Tales Rudyard Kipling 1900
A man close to me picks up a black gun-wad an 'sings out, "I have ut."

Life's Handicap Rudyard Kipling 1900
The cultivated lands of Hyde are not chaffy -- that is, when dry, like tinder, liable to take fire from a spark originated by a gun-wad.

North Carolina and its Resources. North Carolina. Board of Agriculture. 1896
Once an Indian fired through a port-hole into the bedchamber, and the burning gun-wad landed on one of the straw bedticks.

For the Liberty of Texas Edward Stratemeyer 1896
Blacked and burnt, his Scotch bonnet was compressed to a gun-wad on his head.

Israel Potter Herman Melville 1855