Matchlock
WordNet
noun
(1) An early style of musket; a slow-burning wick would be lowered into a hole in the breech to ignite the charge
WiktionaryText
Noun
- Early type of firearm, using a smoldering piece of cord to fire the powder in the firing pan.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘Dray Wara Yow Dee’, Black and White, Folio Society 2004, vol. 1, p. 372:
- I crept silently up the hill-road, but the fuse of my matchlock was wetted with the rain, and I could not slay Daoud Shah from afar.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘Dray Wara Yow Dee’, Black and White, Folio Society 2004, vol. 1, p. 372:
- The gunlock used in such a weapon, having a slow smouldering match.