rifle

Signification (English)

Noun

1. A firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.
2. A rifleman.
3. An artillery piece with a rifled barrel.
4. A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.

Verb

1. To quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing). (See also riffle)
2. To commit robbery or theft.
3. To search with intent to steal; to ransack, pillage or plunder.
4. To strip of goods; to rob; to pillage.
5. To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.
6. To add a spiral groove to a gun bore to make a fired bullet spin in flight in order to improve range and accuracy.
7. To cause (a projectile, as a rifle bullet) to travel in a flat ballistic trajectory.
8. To move in a flat ballistic trajectory (as a rifle bullet).
9. (obsolete) To dispose of in a raffle.
10. (obsolete) To engage in a raffle.

Concepts

fusil

mousquet

carabine

dévaliser

rifle

canon

piller

go

arme à feu

aller

pistolet

🔫

rainurer

ravir

saccager

voler

✈️

fusil à canon rayé

fusil de chasse

pillage

dérober

Synonyms

gun

🔫

musket

shotgun

ransack

weapon

firearm

pistol

small arms

rummage

steal

rob

pillage

loot

despoil

groove

reave

go

scrounge

plunder

shot gun

foray

strip

cannon

misappropriate

nab

piece

poach

purloin

rape

ravish

rifling

scattergun

seize

shooting

snap

snatch

snitch

spear

spoil

swipe

thieve

usurp

burglarise

delve into

hunt for

rummage through

bundook

tear from

rifle-gun

search

army rifle

abstract

air gun

carbine

catch

clutch

cop

👮

crib

defalcate

embezzle

firearms

fusil

grab

grapple

grasp

gripe

grub

handgun

infantry

kidnap

lance

matchlock

metal

🤘

Prononcé comme (IPA)

/ˈɹaɪfəl/

Étymologie (English)

Cognate with allemand: riffeln

Cognate with néerlandais: rijfelen

Cognate with ancien anglais: rifelan

Cognate with vieux norrois: rífa

In summary

Originally short for “rifled gun”, referring to the spiral grooves inside the barrel. From Middle English riflen (“to rob, plunder, search through”), from Old French rifler (“to lightly scratch, scrape off, plunder”), from Old High German riffilōn (compare German riffeln (“to score, make grooves in, ripple”), archaic Dutch rijfelen (“to scrape”), Old English rifelan, riflian (“to wrinkle”)), frequentative of Proto-Germanic *rīfaną (compare Old Norse rífa (“to tear, break”)). More at rive.