English

Noun

firelock ‎(plural firelocks)

1. An old form of gunlock, as the flintlock, which ignites the priming by a spark.
   • 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rip Van Winkle:

     He looked round for his gun, but … he found an old firelock lying by him, … He now suspected that the grave roysters of the mountain had put a trick upon him, ….

   • 1824, Town and Country Tales (page 115)

     Alfred, surprised to meet his father, whom he thought absent from home, […] stood, holding his firelock in one hand, and his hat in the other […]

References

• firelock in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913