tinder-box

tinder-box (plural tinder-boxes)

1. Alternative form of tinderbox.
   • 1861, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter VIII, in Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, part I, page 118:

     The rain had washed away all possibility of distinguishing foot-marks, but a close investigation of the spot had disclosed, in the direction opposite to the village, a tinder-box, with a flint and steel, half sunk in the mud.