California toothpick

plural California toothpicks

1. obsoleteA Bowie knife.

   Men cut each other with "California toothpicks" (bowie knives). Mosquitoes swarmed in the hot evenings.

   1942, Richard Gordon Lillard, Desert Challenge, page 142

   2 more examples

   the latter a most formidable weapon, only inferior in size and weight to the modern "California toothpick."

   1856, W.G. Simms, Eutaw, page 142

   Provisions to last a year or more were put on board, together with all sorts of mining equipment - spades, shovels, picks, the newest and best in gold washing machines, fire kindlers, life preservers, pails for collecting gold, California soap to wash gold, California gold sifters, California toothpicks.

   1967, Theressa Gay, James W. Marshall, The Discoverer of California Gold, A Biography, page 216

   Synonyms: Missouri toothpick