gun moll
1
9.9
- noun
- /ɡʌn mɔl/
- Archaic
:
mujer de un gánster
- Think of it: "Harriet MacKyle, gun moll!"
Examples
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I'll have Warner Purcell and Helen Sinclair, and then I can live with that gun moll!
-
She looked even tougher now, like a gun moll in an old movie.
Fiction book (1991) -
She always dreamed of being a gun moll, living a glamorous life by the side of a notorious gangster.
-
In the film, the main character falls in love with a gun moll who has a dark past.
-
The stories of gun molls from the Prohibition era fascinated her, as they portrayed strong women in a man's world.
Synonyms
4
9.9
A woman who is the companion of a gangster
1
9.9
A woman who is the girlfriend of a gangster
Surface Forms
Morphology
Given the provided constituent meanings, the compound is compositionally straightforward: 'moll' already denotes a female companion of a criminal and 'gun' specifies association with an armed criminal or gangster. The adjective+noun combination follows normal English compounding patterns, so a learner who knows both words can infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Gun moll comes from old gangster slang: moll was a word for a gangster's woman, and the image of her with a gun gave a clear picture of a dangerous companion. So, gun moll means 'a woman who is the companion or girlfriend of a gangster'.