thundersticks

Noun

thunderstick (plural thundersticks)

1. A gun or cannon, especially a rifle, as seen from the imagined perspective of an uncivilized person or an animal.
   • The man pointed his thunderstick at the buffalo, and with a great noise and fire, the buffalo fell down dead.

   Synonyms:

   fire-stick

2. A narrow plastic balloon that is used as a promotional noise maker by hitting one against another.
   • Called “James Tenney and Milton Babbitt : American Iconoclasts,” the mini-festival begins on Saturday with a work by Mr. Tenney, who died in 2006, on a program including pieces by Larry Polansky, Michael Byron and Henry Cowell (the 1925 “Ensemble” for string quartet and thundersticks). Mr. Babbitt...2008 February 8, The New York Times, “Classical Music/Opera Listings”, in New York Times