snaphance

English

Etymology

Dutch snaphaan (“a gun”), originally, the snapping cock of a gun. See snap and hen.

Noun

snaphance (plural snaphances)

1. A spring lock for discharging a firearm.
2. The firearm to which it is attached.
3. (obsolete) A trifling or second-rate thing or person.
4. (obsolete) A snappish retort.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “snaphance”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)