roscoe
1
9.9
An old slang name for a small gun people carry for protection
- noun
- /ˈrɒskoʊ/
- Archaic
:
pistola
- The detective warned him not to wave that roscoe around in public.
Examples
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He pulled out his roscoe when confronted in the alley.
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In old gangster movies, a roscoe is often seen as a mark of power.
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Set the roscoe on the floor.
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easy with that roscoe, killer.
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Dirk Web is on the case with a new twist, dodging slugs, and trading in his roscoe for a PDA.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word roscoe was early 20th-century American slang for a 'handgun'. A helpful way to remember it is to think of Roscoe as a man's name used like a nickname for a pistol in old gangster talk, so the name came to mean the gun itself.