slungshot

English

Etymology

From slung +‎ shot.

Noun

slungshot (plural slungshots)

  1. (nautical) A maritime tool consisting of a weight (the "shot") affixed to the end of a long cord, used to cast line from one location to another and sometimes as an improvised weapon.
    • 1857–1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes [Sr.], chapter II, in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company, published 1858, →OCLC, page 35:
      All at once the blood dropped out of her cheeks as the mercury drops from a broken barometer-tube, and she melted away from her seat like an image of snow; a slung[-]shot could not have brought her down better.

Further reading

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