shooting iron

See also: shooting-iron

English

Alternative forms

• shooting-iron

Noun

shooting iron (plural shooting irons)

1. (chiefly US, colloquial, dated) A firearm, especially a handgun.
   • 1895, G. A. Henty, chapter 15, in In the Heart Of The Rockies:

     "It ain't the rifle, Harry," Sam said good-temperedly; "it is the eye that is wrong, not the shooting-iron."

   • 1899 September – 1900 July, Joseph Conrad, chapter XXV, in Lord Jim: A Tale, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1900, →OCLC, page 267:

     Look like a fool walking about with an empty shooting-iron in my hand.

   • 1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, page xxv. 183:

     "Look like a damn fool walking about with an empty shooting-iron in my hand."

   • 1943 June 14, Cheap Firepower‎^[1]:

     The U.S. Army's newest war tool, the M-3 submachine gun, unveiled last week. [...] a stark, crude, unlovely shooting iron.

Translations

firearm

• Bulgarian: огнестрелно оръжие (ognestrelno orǎžie)
• Finnish: paukkurauta (fi), reikärauta
• German: Schießeisen (de) n
• Swedish: skjutjärn n

References

• “shooting iron”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.