gravel-shooter

gravel-shooter n esp VA, WV Cf bean-shooter n, gravel-flipper n, nigger-shooter n, rubber shooter n

A slingshot.

1875 Alexandria Gaz. (VA) 20 Nov [4]/1, No mother . . should fail to provide plenty of pockets for the little boys to put their hands in this winter, likewise a gum ball, and a biscuit, . . a gravel shooter, several cigar stumps, . . and a few other of the necessities of life. 1882 NY Tribune (NY) 1 July 3/5, Boys armed with gravel-shooters make life a burden to the Italians in Mott and Mulberry-sts. 1883 Ft. Wayne Daily Gaz. (IN) 31 Mar 5/1, As soon as the ground dries so that marbles may be played with comfort . . , the boy cheerfully throws away his marbles and takes to the gravel shooter or devil’s sling. 1914 DN 4.160 cVA, Prong. . . “Ovah neah thuh branch yo’ kin find a prong foah my graveh-shootah” (gravel-shooter). 1935 Beckley Post–Herald (WV) 18 May 1/5, Someone fired an air-rifle or gravel-shooter from the Raleigh County Bank building wounding the picket below the right eye. 1948 Ibid 27 Nov 2/7, He remembers sustaining an injury when he was about six years old, during a “sham battle with gravel shooters” and by the time he was grown the eye was almost useless. 1975 Charleston Gaz. (WV) 28 Feb sec A 7/2, [Letter:] There is a fellow up on Cabin Creek that can hit a penny in the air with a grave[l] shooter and I used to be fair with one myself. 2009 in 2015 DARE File—Internet csVA, If the young vulture-moving specialist is unskilled with a gravel shooter and/or doesn’t own one (as kids, we constructed them out of green forked branches . . ; inner-tube strips; and old leather shoe tongues), a secondary alternative might be a low-velocity, non-penetrating BB gun.