To: xm177e2; LibKill
Thanks...
15 posted on
03/29/2003 6:03:50 PM PST by
Dog
To: Dog
From the complete Oxford English Dictionary on CD-Rom:
'knuckle-'duster
[f. knuckle n. + duster. (orig. criminals' slang, U.S.)]
A metal instrument made to cover the knuckles, so as to protect them from injury in striking, and at the same time to add force to a blow given with the fist thus covered.
1858 Times 15 Feb. (Farmer), - Knuckle-duster+a formidable American instrument, made of brass, which slips easily on to the four fingers of the hand, and having a projecting surface, across the knuckles, is calculated+to inflict serious injury on the person against whom it is directed.
1861 All Year Round 13 July 372 - But what the crew most feared, was the free use of the brass knuckles or knuckle-dusters.+ These are brass finger-guards, not unlike what the Roman gladiators called the cestus; they constitute a regular portion of the equipment of an officer of the American mercantile marine.
1862 Illustr. Lond. News 11 Jan. 51/2 - The American shoulder-hitters, knuckle-dusters, and gum-ticklers.
1862 Ann. Reg. 193 - One of them struck him a fearful blow with a knuckle-duster.
1873 Slang Dict. s.v., - Sometimes a knuckle-duster has knobs or points projecting, so as to mutilate and disfigure the person struck.
1870 Standard 15 Dec., - I have been in many mobs, and have been charged both by cavalry and the knuckleduster brigade in Paris.
163 posted on
03/30/2003 5:01:39 AM PST by
Asher
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