Etymology

From muff +‎ pistolCategory:English compound terms#MUFFPISTOL.

Noun

muff pistol (plural muff pistols)Category:English lemmas#MUFFPISTOLCategory:English nouns#MUFFPISTOLCategory:English countable nouns#MUFFPISTOLCategory:English multiword terms#MUFFPISTOLCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#MUFFPISTOLCategory:Pages with entries#MUFF%20PISTOLCategory:Pages with 1 entry#MUFF%20PISTOL

1. (historicalCategory:English terms with historical senses#MUFFPISTOL) A small flintlock or percussion gun, usually for women, which can be hidden in a muff (hand-warmer).
   • 2006, Elisabeth Israels Perry and Jennifer Ann Price, expanatory note for An American girl, and her four years in a boys' college by Olive San Louie Anderson, page 203:

     A century earlier [than the 1870s], women in dangerous professions, such as tending bar or prostitution, carried a “lady's muff pistol.”