Quaker gun

From Quaker +‎ gun, referring to the pacifism associated with practitioners of the Quaker religion.^[1][2]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkweɪkə ˈɡʌn/

• Audio (General Australian):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkweɪkəɹ ˈɡʌn/
• Rhymes: -ʌn
• Hyphenation: Quak‧er gun

Quaker gun (plural Quaker guns)

1. (idiomatic, chiefly US, weaponry, historical) A nonfunctional imitation of a gun or an artillery piece, typically made of wood and usually intended to deceive enemy forces into overestimating one's available firepower.
   • 1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], chapter III, in A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Inskeep & Bradford, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 216:

     Nor was he content with thus strongly garrisoning the fort, but he likewise added exceedingly to its strength by furnishing it with a formidable battery of quaker guns—rearing a stupendous flag-staff in the centre which overtopped the whole city—and moreover by building a great windmill on one of the bastions.

   • 1843, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter VI, in Wyandotté, or The Hutted Knoll. […], volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, pages 84–85:

     The captain examined the marks left on the grass, and was of opinion that more than one man had been employed to set up the decoy figure, […] "At all events, your honour, I will carry the quaker in," said Joyce, tossing the stuffed figure on a shoulder. "He will do to man the quaker gun at least, and may be of use in frightening some one of the other side, more than he has yet frightened us."

   • 1861 October 4, “Our troops at Munson's Hill”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 4 November 2015:

     No one would imagine, from the appearance of the troops on Munson's Hill and the vicinity, that they were new comers. […] Fortifications are already so complete as to forbid all hopes of the rebels regaining possession of these localities. The Quaker gun found there was consigned to the flames to-day, and in its stead heavy artillery, of the genuine sort, commands all the surrounding country.

   • 1980, Marjorie Sykes, “The British India Society 1815–1843”, in Quakers in India: A Forgotten Century, London: George Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, page 19:

     Those who watched from the shore as the beautiful vessel moved upstream saw that she too carried guns, but when they boarded her they found that the 'guns' were dummies made of wood. 'Yes,' explained the crew in answer to their wondering questions, 'them's Quaker guns. "Quakers" would be no use in a fight, but they look all right at a distance. They frighten the pirates away – and they cost much less than the real thing!'

   • 1988, James M[unro] McPherson, “Farewell to the Ninety Days’ War”, in Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era (The Oxford History of the United States; 6), New York, N.Y.; Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 361–362:

     In late September the southerners withdrew from one exposed position on Munson's Hill a few miles southwest of Washington. When the Federals moved in, instead of the large cannon they had expected they found a log shaped and painted to resemble a cannon. This "Quaker gun" embarrassed [General George Brinton] McClellan and called into question his reports of superior Confederate forces. […] The Quaker gun incident further dissipated the once-enormous reservoir of support and adulation for McClellan.

• quaker gun

• Quaker gun on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “Quaker gun”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.