1. A name for a gun of large size and long range.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Long Tom, or Long Tom Turks, pieces of lengthy ordnance for chasers, &c.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 13 April, 5/1. One of the white twins, familiarly known as ‘Long Toms,’ from the Camperdown barbette.
1900. Daily News, 7 March, 2/6. Four ‘Long Toms,’ or Canet guns of the type known as the ‘155 long.’
2. A kind of gold-washing cradle.
1855. F. Marryat, Mtns. & Molehills, xiv. 262. They [miners] return to their camps and long toms [foot-n. gold washers].
1874. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 18.
1890. ‘Lyth,’ Golden South, 166. The real ‘Long Tom’ or cradle was a narrow trough filled with earth, into which water flowed through a kind of funnel; the cradle was rocked, and the gold washed from the earth fell into a tin dish.
3. dial. A name for certain animals (see quots.).
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Long Tom, the long-tailed titmouse, Parvus caudatus.
1883. E. P. Ramsay, Food Fishes N. S. Wales, 29 (Fish. Exhib. Publ.). There are three or four species of Belone on our coast, all known under the name of ‘Long Toms’ by the fishermen.
