muff pistol

noun

A small flintlock or percussion gun, usually for women, which can be hidden in a muff (hand-warmer).

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Meanings

nounmuff pistol (plural muff pistols)

plural muff pistols

  1. historicalA small flintlock or percussion gun, usually for women, which can be hidden in a muff (hand-warmer).

    A century earlier [than the 1870s], women in dangerous professions, such as tending bar or prostitution, carried a “lady's muff pistol.”

    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

Origin

From muff + pistol.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

muff pistol. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/muff%20pistol

MLA

“muff pistol.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/muff%20pistol. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “muff pistol,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/muff%20pistol.

Source: muff pistol on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.