early and dial. form of TRIGGER1. Hence Tricker-firelock, a hand fire-arm of the middle of the 17th c., discharged by pulling a trigger; Tricker-lock, name in the 17th c. for a gun-lock furnished with a trigger, whether a match tricker-lock, or a wheel tricker-lock.
1629. Schedule, in Meyrick, Antient Armour (1824), III. 100. For a match tricker-lock compleat … 1s. For a handle or guard of a tricker … vid. For furnishing and setting of a tricker lock in place of a feare lock, with a handle, tricker, and tricker pynnes. iis. vid.
1824. Meyrick, ibid., 88. The tricker-lock, I conceive, to be that furnished with a hair-trigger, as it is now called.
1855. Jrnl. Brit. Archæol. Assoc., XI. 255. Mr. G. Wright exhibited … a fine example of the lock of a Tricker firelock,… exhumed … from the battle-field of Worcester [1651]. The rising piece above the pan is furrowed, to facilitate the production of the sparks from the pyrites or flint.
