Wiktionary
alt. A burn, ordinarily superficial and on someone's skin, resulting from proximity to an explosion of gunpowder such as that associated with the discharge of a firearm. n. A burn, ordinarily superficial and on someone's skin, resulting from proximity to an explosion of gunpowder such as that associated with the discharge of a firearm.
Wikipedia
A powder burn is a type of burn caused by exposure to the burning gases which are expelled from the muzzle of a firearm as it is fired. Powder burns only occur when the person or item to be burned is close to the discharging firearm, as the gases quickly dissipate. This can be an indicator on a corpse of whether the person was shot at point-blank range or not.
Usage examples of "powder burn".
He is the author of Tourist Season, Double Whammy, Skin Tight, Native Tongue and Strip Tease and with William Montalbano, Trap Line, Powder Burn and Death in China.
When he turned toward me again I saw there was a scar on the left side of his face from what seemed to be a powder burn.
Carnacho shot him cleanly between the shoulder blades at a range of two feet, so close that the powder burn scorched the man's shirt.
Doc said, pointing at the corpse of a stickie that was hunched over by a frost-shattered boulder, a dark powder burn in its chest showing where it had been shot at close quarters by one of the hunters.
He was cleanshaven, but his beard was so dark it looked like powder burn under the skin.
At first Anna thought powder burn had blinded her or a freak of the explosion so close had caused the same effect.
During the early 1980s, while still a member of the investigations team, Hiaasen began to write fiction, spending evenings and weekends co-authoring, with the late William Montalbano, three novelsthe recently reprinted Powder Burn, Trap Line, and A Death in China.