subs. (pugilistic).—1.  A boxing-glove. Also MUFFLER.

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  1755.  The Connoisseur, No. 52. He has the shape and constitution of a porter, and is sturdy enough to encounter Broughton without MUFFLERS.

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  1811.  T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, xix. Chap. 7. … shows that the Greeks, for mere exercise or sparring, made use of MUFFLES or gloves.

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  1819.  BYRON, Don Juan, ii. 92. For sometimes we must box without the MUFFLE.

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  1823.  BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. MUFFLERS—gloves with wool stuffed upon the knuckles, for boxers to spar withal, and not hurt each other too much; claret comes sometimes.

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  1827.  REYNOLDS (‘Peter Corcoran’), The Fancy, ‘Stanzas to Kate.’

        Forgive me,—and MUFFLERS I’ll carefully pull
  O’er my knuckles hereafter.

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  1859.  G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

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  1891.  Licensed Victuallers’ Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 7, c. There were few, if any, men of about his height and weight who could stand before him with the MUFFLERS.

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  2.  (pugilistic).—A stunning blow.

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  3.  (thieves’).—A crape mask: once a kind of vizard or veil worn by women (STOW, 1539).

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  1838.  GLASCOCK, Land Sharks and Sea Gulls, ii. 126. The dark lanterns—the MUFFLERS—and the jemmy.

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