quaker gun

Noun capitalized: Quaker gun

Quaker gun (plural Quaker guns)

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