Also spring gun. [SPRING sb.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.
