Texas toothpick

plural Texas toothpicks

1. informalA knife with a long narrow blade, especially one that is a folding knife.

   I brought it home and sawed off enough pieces for a matching bowie and Texas toothpick set I was making.

   2012, Wayne Goddard, Building the Everyday Work Knife, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   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.

   1992, Doyle Trent, Rawhide Ransom, →ISBN, page 65

   I got a telegram from over in Ellsworth that he has a fondness for slicing men up with that Texas toothpick of his.

   1993, Jake Logan, Revenge at Devils Tower, →ISBN, page 27

   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.

   2003, Ed Fowler, Ed Fowler's Knife Talk II: The High Performance Blade, →ISBN, page 49

2. informalA raccoon baculum, carried as a lucky charm.

   New Orleans gamblers are said to use the bones (also called coon dogs and Texas toothpicks) for luck.

   2011, Joanne O'Sullivan, Book of Superstitious Stuff, →ISBN

   1 more example

   In the southern United States, the baculums of raccoons— nicknamed Texas toothpicks—are considered signs of luck and fertility.

   2016, Ann Downer, The Animal Mating Game, →ISBN