The Collaborative International Dictionary
Very's night signals \Ver"y's night signals\, or Very night signals \Ver"y night signals\ . [After Lieut. Samuel W. Very, who invented the system in 1877.] (Naut.) A system of signaling in which balls of red and green fire are fired from a pistol, the arrangement in groups denoting numbers having a code significance. The pistol used to fire the signal flare is called a
Very pistol.
Usage examples of "very pistol".
The sallow-faced man leaned out of the window and fired off the stubby Very pistol.
Suddenly, a Very pistol ball climbed from one of the planes, burned red.
Turn the very pistol itself into a small and quick golem and have it close its mouth, have it eat the bullet before it spat it away, and then Judah might have the thing twist in Ann-Haris hand and turn with what limited motion its shape allowed it, and point up into her face, a threat, and give Judah the time, while Ann-Hari was paralysed with that surprise and the menace of her own weapon, give him the time to get away, with Cutter, over the rise and the pathway.
I'm going to have a Very pistol with me, and if, during that funeral, you or any of your men should see a big old star-shell go off in the sky, you'll know I have run afoul of some of that craziness no one will believe.
Oh, sweet Mother of God, Michael breathed, as he snatched the Very pistol out of its holster beside his seat.
The shotgun-sized implement, which was a Very pistol firing a slug that would burst into a smoke puff high in the air, should set machinery in motion to settle the business at hand.
The Englishman took the small Very pistol from his sack, loaded it, and fired it into the air.