sham-damnadj.
The distinctive epithet of an inferior kind of scrap-iron, used for making gun-barrels. Hence of firearms: Of wretched quality, ‘shoddy’.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > iron > [adjective] > other qualities of iron
weak1841
spilly1843
sham-damn1846
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > [adjective] > others
stocked1497
breeched1575
chambered1611
tower-proof1673
triggerless18..
hair-triggered1806
vizyless1828
high-velocity1854
sighted1859
calibred1887
recoilless1888
sham-damn1895
silenced1909
silencered1935
multicalibre1983
1846 W. Greener Sci. Gunnery (new ed.) 197 Sham damn iron is similar in nature to brass, a metal with fibres certainly, but they are like the fibres of willow compared to oak... All slave gun-barrels are made of it.
1852 C. Tomlinson Cycl. Useful Arts (1854) I. 818/1 These [pieces of scrap-iron] are sorted and used in preparing iron of various qualities, known as wire-twist,..twopenny, or Wednesbury-skelp, sham-damn-skelp, &c.
1895 Outing 27 63/2 A cheap, sham-dam arm should not be given to a boy, for it may prove his executioner.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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adj.1846