Wiktionary
n. A rifle that loads itself either from a belt or magazine and being either semi-automatic or fully automatic. Generally referred to as a machine gun.
WordNet
n. light machine gun [syn: automatic, machine rifle]
Wikipedia
An automatic rifle is a type of magazine-fed rifle that uses either its recoil or a portion of the gas propelling the projectile to remove the spent cartridge case, cock the rifle, load a new cartridge and fire again repeatedly, as long as the trigger is held down or until the magazine is exhausted. Automatic rifles are distinguished from semi-automatic rifles in their ability to fire more than one shot in succession once the trigger is pulled. Many automatic rifles are select-fire weapons which are capable of firing in fully automatic and semi-automatic modes, or in some cases, even being capable of burst-fire.
Usage examples of "automatic rifle".
The terrorist pitched forward, his automatic rifle dropping from his hands.
He was covering the down-slope edge of the boulder with his automatic rifle and he was thinking: when I see him he will be running already and I will miss him if I am not careful.
Johnnie snatched out the automatic rifle as the gunner spun his twin-sixties to bear.
Kowacs snarled to Sienkiewicz as she slung the plasma gun and cocked her automatic rifle.
His comrades in the bush-covered rock of the cliffside were firing at the center truck, trying to silence the automatic rifle beneath it.
The man had lost his bearskin shako but still had an automatic rifle with a half-foot of steel bayonet perched on the muzzle.
She nodded at him, gagged by the mask, and again the gallery echoed to the deafening roar of automatic rifle-fire from above.