Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A short-barreled pistol that has a large bore and is small enough to be carried in a pocket.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A short-barreled pistol of large caliber, very efficient at short range.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of short-barreled pocket pistol, of very large caliber, often carrying a half-ounce ball.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A type of very small, concealable pistol with one or two barrels, but without any loading system or magazine.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a pocket pistol of large caliber with a short barrel

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After Henry Deringer, (1786–1868), American gunsmith.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named after gunsmith Henry Deringer Junior.

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