English edit

Noun edit

Texas toothpick (plural Texas toothpicks)

  1. (informal) A knife with a long narrow blade, especially one that is a folding knife.
    • 1992, Doyle Trent, Rawhide Ransom, →ISBN, page 65:
      This is gonna be like bleedin' a steer. Turn around, mister, or I'll stick this Texas toothpick in your eyes, one at a time.
    • 1993, Jake Logan, Revenge at Devils Tower, →ISBN, page 27:
      I got a telegram from over in Ellsworth that he has a fondness for slicing men up with that Texas toothpick of his.
    • 2003, Ed Fowler, Ed Fowler's Knife Talk II: The High Performance Blade, →ISBN, page 49:
      Bob was the only man the author ever knew to carry a mint-condition fishing knife—not unlike this Case Classic Texas toothpick—into the Wyoming high country and use it on brook trout.
    • 2012, Wayne Goddard, Building the Everyday Work Knife, →ISBN:
      I brought it home and sawed off enough pieces for a matching bowie and Texas toothpick set I was making.
  2. (informal) A raccoon baculum, carried as a lucky charm.
    • 2011, Joanne O'Sullivan, Book of Superstitious Stuff, →ISBN:
      New Orleans gamblers are said to use the bones (also called coon dogs and Texas toothpicks) for luck.
    • 2016, Ann Downer, The Animal Mating Game, →ISBN:
      In the southern United States, the baculums of raccoons— nicknamed Texas toothpicks—are considered signs of luck and fertility.

See also edit