matchlock
(ˈmætʃlɒk)
[f. match n.2 + lock n.2]
1. A gun lock in which slow-match is placed for igniting the powder. b. attrib.: matchlock musket = 2.
| 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 139 The Infantry [consists] of Gentues, with Match-Lock Muskets. 1727–52 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Carabine, The carabine..was formerly made with a match-lock, but of late only with a flint-lock. 1786 Grose Anc. Armour & Weapons 64 Musquets were fired with match locks. a 1854 H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets viii. (1857) 289 The clumsy matchlock musket of olden time. 1859 All Year Round No. 4. 87 The hand guns were used with a matchlock till the pyrites wheel lock was invented. |
2. A musket having a matchlock.
| 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 99 Matchlocks, Swords, and Javelins. 1795 Anderson Brit. Emb. China 71 Others are armed with match-locks of a very rusty appearance. 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. x. 290 The battle was waged out of Court with sword and matchlock. |
b. attrib.: matchlock-man, a soldier armed with a matchlock.
| 1782 Hist. Europe in Ann. Reg. (1783) 32/1 No less than 1,800 were match-lock-men. 1893 W. Forbes-Mitchell Remin. Gt. Mutiny 254 Some seven or eight hundred matchlock⁓men opened fire on them. |
Hence ˈmatchlocked a., having matchlocks, armed with matchlocks.
| 1871 Forsyth Highl. India 296 A whole posse of matchlocked shikáris. |