frizzen

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An L-shaped piece of steel hinged at the rear used in flintlock firearms, positioned over the flash pan so to enclose a small priming charge of black powder next to the flash hole that is drilled through the barrel, such that when fired the flint scrapes it so as to create a spark.

Word forms

frizzen frizzens

Etymology

From earlier frizzle (noun), of unknown origin. Compare fleerish, furison.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.