Definition of "lintstock"

The gunner, with his lintstock in hand, was preparing to set to work.

1892, Ivan Vazov, Under the Yoke: A Romance of Bulgarian Liberty, translator not credited, London: William Heinemann, 1912, Chapter X, p. 214

Guns and carriages, together with the long rammers and shorter lintstocks lodged in loops overhead—all these, as customary, were painted black […]

1924, Herman Melville, chapter 20, in Billy Budd‎, London: Constable & Co.