ˈflint-lock
[See lock.]
a. A gun-lock in which a flint, screwed to the cock, is struck against the hammer and produces sparks which ignite the priming in the flash-pan. Also attrib., as flint-lock gun, flint-lock musket. b. A gun fitted with this lock.
| 1683 Sir J. Turner Pallas Armata 176 It were there⁓fore good, that for the half of the Muskets (if not for them all) flint-locks were made. 1833 J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 89 The soldiers of that duchy [Brunswick] first obtained, in 1687, flint-locks, instead of matchlocks. 1887 Whitaker's Almanack 541 The old flint-lock musket became famous in the Peninsular War under the name of ‘Brown Bess’. |
Hence flint-locked a., fitted with a flint-lock.
| 1885 Century Mag. XXIX. 684 The long flint-locked rifle. |