peashooter

[pee-shoo-ter]

noun

1. a tube through which dried peas, pea, beans, or small pellets are blown, used as a toy.

peashooter

/ ˈpiːˌʃuːtə /

noun

1. a tube through which pellets such as dried peas are blown, used as a toy weapon

Word History and Origins

Origin of peashooter¹

First recorded in 1860–65; pea ¹ + shooter

Example Sentences

Riding roughshod through the wilderness of D.C. like a rotund headless horseman in a dark suit, white shirt and red tie; wielding his trusty, husky musky sword and a peashooter armed with ignorance and fear, the new Trump empire feels like four years after only three days.

Read more on Salon

By 1975, the Camaro’s strongest V-8 was a 155-horsepower peashooter.

Read more on New York Times

“You don’t take a peashooter to a gunfight,” Keatinge said, expressing his dismay with the sanctions announced so far.

Read more on Washington Post

Other alleged pranks at the Caithness office had included putting ice down clothing, taping someone who had fallen asleep to his chair, placing tape on the beard of another colleague, pouring shredded paper over a member of staff, throwing papers and using a pen casing as a peashooter.

Read more on BBC

“If you’re talking about fighting Covid and the Delta variant and winning this battle once and for all, a mask is like a peashooter and the vaccine is like a cannon,” the mayor said on Wednesday.

Read more on New York Times

Related Words

• cannon 
• handgun 
• hardware 
• mortar 
• piece 
• pistol 
• revolver 
• rifle 
• shotgun