rifle

Meaning

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.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɹaɪfəl/

Etymology

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.