muff pistol

muff pistol

English

Etymology

muff +‎ pistol

Noun

muff pistol (plural muff pistols)

1. (historical) A small flintlock or percussion 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.”