The Collaborative International Dictionary
grease gun \grease gun\, grease-gun \grease-gun\n. A device held in the hand, having a supply of grease and attached to a reservoir of pressurized air, used to force grease between adjacent moving parts of a machine, especially in the bearings of motor vehicles.
Wiktionary
n. 1 a levered device for forcing grease into machinery. 2 (colloquial, due to its appearance) a small machine gun, particularly the .45 calibre M3 used by the US in WW2.
Wikipedia
A grease gun is a common workshop and garage tool used for lubrication. The purpose of the grease gun is to apply lubricant through an aperture to a specific point, usually on a grease fitting or 'nipple'. The channels behind the grease nipple lead to where the lubrication is needed. The aperture may be of a type that fits closely with a receiving aperture on any number of mechanical devices. The close fitting of the apertures ensures that lubricant is applied only where needed. There are three types of grease gun:
- Hand-powered, where the grease is forced from the aperture by back-pressure built up by hand cranking the trigger mechanism of the gun, which applies pressure to a spring mechanism behind the lubricant, thus forcing grease through the aperture.
- Hand-powered, where there is no trigger mechanism, and the grease is forced through the aperture by the back-pressure built up by pushing on the butt of the grease gun, which slides a piston through the body of the tool, pumping grease out of the aperture.
- Air-powered (pneumatic), where compressed air is directed to the gun by hoses, the air pressure serving to force the grease through the aperture. Russell Gray, inventor of the air-powered grease gun, founded Graco based on this invention.
The grease gun is charged or loaded with any of the various types of lubricants, but usually a thicker heavier type of grease is used.
It was a close resemblance to contemporary hand-powered grease guns that gave the nickname to the World War II-era M3 submachine gun.
Usage examples of "grease gun".
Another night that Tyler didn't come home, someone was drilling bank machines and pay telephones and then screwing lube fittings into the drilled holes and using a grease gun to pump the bank machines and pay telephones full of axle grease or vanilla pudding.
As if in reply, a long, strident burst from a grease gun, sprayed from the roof of the Administration Building, pocked the wall behind them, chewing out irregular niches in the brick.
But I am more secure knowing that I could have figured out what a grease gun might be used for.
He handed Rogers the grease gun, but made no move with regard to his pistol.
The half-smile he gave his brother could have been meant for either what he had just said or for the words he added, raising both the grease gun and the wire brush he held in his left hand: “.
The two households there he pointed to the entrances now blocked by vehicles, using the grease gun in his right hand for the gesture have both been evacuated to the Bordj.
The announcer was pale and just this side of prissy, with a razor-sharp pompadour that could have been shot from a grease gun.
The grease gun was probably some kind of federal violation or whatever—.