rifle

Meaning

Noun

1. A firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.
2. (dated, plural-normally) 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. (intransitive) To quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing). (See also riffle)
2. (intransitive) To commit robbery or theft.
3. (transitive) To search with intent to steal; to ransack, pillage or plunder.
4. (transitive) To strip of goods; to rob; to pillage.
5. (transitive) To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.
6. (transitive) 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. (transitive) To cause (a projectile, as a rifle bullet) to travel in a flat ballistic trajectory.
8. (intransitive) To move in a flat ballistic trajectory (as a rifle bullet).
9. (obsolete, transitive) To dispose of in a raffle.
10. (intransitive, obsolete) To engage in a raffle.

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

Translations

fusil

fucile

Gewehr

fusil

rifle

geweer

tüfek

mousquet

fusell

escopeta

carabine

τουφέκι

roer

fuzil

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɹaɪfəl/

Etymology

Cognate with German: riffeln

Cognate with Dutch: rijfelen

Cognate with Old English: rifelan

Cognate with Old Norse: 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.