spring-gun
Also spring gun.
[spring n.1]
1. A gun capable of being discharged by one coming in contact with it, or with a wire or the like attached to the trigger; formerly used as a guard against trespassers or poachers, and placed in concealment for this purpose.
| 1775 Sheridan Duenna i. iii, Steel traps and spring guns seemed writ in every wrinkle. 1776 Boswell Life Johnson (Oxf. ed.) I. 659 He should have warned us of our danger..by advertising, ‘Spring-guns and men-traps set here’. 1816 Sporting Mag. XLVIII. 29 Till had been killed by a spring⁓gun on Lord Ducie's liberty. 1825 Gentl. Mag. XCV. i. 262 Lord Suffield moved the first reading of the Bill for prohibiting the use of Spring Guns as a means of protection for game. 1865 Baring-Gould Were-wolves xv. 259 It was on the night of the 15th March that the spring-gun shot him. |
2. A toy gun in which the missile is discharged by the release of a spring.
| 1837 W. B. Adams Carriages 127 The child's spiral spring⁓gun is a familiar illustration of the mode in which this spring can best act. 1905 A. R. Wallace My Life I. 66 Among our favourite playthings were pop-guns and miniature spring-guns and pistols. |