豆鉄砲(まめでっぽう)

まめでっぽう
noun
peashooter; pea gun (toy)
tool
1. peashooter; pea gun (toy that shoots beans)
A simple toy gun, traditionally bamboo, that fires small beans or pellets. Mostly encountered today in the idiom 鳩(はと)が豆鉄砲(まめでっぽう)を食(く)ったよう.
豆鉄砲(まめでっぽう)で遊(あそ)んだ。
I played with a peashooter.
鳩(はと)が豆鉄砲(まめでっぽう)を食(く)ったような顔(かお)をした。
He looked like a pigeon hit by a peashooter — i.e., stunned and wide-eyed.
突然(とつぜん)の知(し)らせに、彼女(かのじょ)は鳩(はと)が豆鉄砲(まめでっぽう)を食(く)ったような顔(かお)でこちらを見(み)つめた。
At the sudden news, she stared at me with a stunned, wide-eyed look.

Compound of 豆(まめ) (bean) + 鉄砲(てっぽう) (gun), with rendaku turning てっぽう into でっぽう. The literal toy is rarely seen today; the word survives mainly in one famous idiom.

Common expressions

  • 鳩(はと)が豆鉄砲(まめでっぽう)を食(く)ったよう: looking startled and dumbfounded, eyes wide open — the image is of a pigeon hit by a sudden tiny shot and frozen in surprise. This is far and away the most common way the word appears in modern Japanese.

Similar words

  • 水鉄砲(みずでっぽう): water gun — similar construction with a different ammo
  • おもちゃの銃(じゅう): toy gun — modern, generic equivalent
general
Added 2026.6.4 11:08 · Revised 2026.9.2 13:02
28500/28684_mamedeppou