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rifle
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
rifle
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a pistol/rifle shot
▪ A pistol shot rang out in the darkness.
air rifle
fire a gun/weapon/rifle etc (=make it shoot)
▪ the sound of a gun being fired
pump-action shotgun/rifle
rifle range
Rifles, The
rummage/rifle through drawers (=search in them by moving things around in an untidy way)
▪ Someone had been in my bedroom and rummaged through my drawers.
shoot a gun/rifle etc
▪ Tod’s grandfather taught him to shoot a rifle.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
automatic
▪ They are holding automatic rifles and wearing steel helmets.
▪ After the war, semi-and fully automatic rifles were developed.
▪ It said villagers were forming detachments, many of them equipped with automatic rifles and home-made explosives.
▪ Walking in front of Converse was a little man called the Caporal who carried a Browning automatic rifle decorated with hibiscus.
▪ He wore a mottled camouflage jacket and a lightweight stetson and carried an automatic rifle.
▪ They rested on a bank, automatic rifles stacked beside them.
▪ He heard the fluttering of bullets before the fast slap-slap-slap of an automatic rifle.
▪ The police in Baku carry automatic rifles.
■ NOUN
air
▪ His owner, Jeremy Young admitted repeatedly shooting him with an air rifle at his home in Princes Risborough.
▪ It did, for the gun he took was an almost silent air rifle.
▪ Fifteen-year-old Nicola Child was blasted with an air rifle in a cruel prank.
▪ Doctors feared an air rifle pellet had pierced his brain when the joke went horribly wrong.
▪ Reward to catch the air rifle snipers.
▪ Mr Day, 32, pointed dad Frank's air rifle at the boy believing it was unloaded.
▪ Inside the box, an air rifle which was probably stolen.
▪ Requesting the congregation to leave, he sent his son to fetch an air rifle.
assault
▪ Over 7,000 assault rifles, 500 rocket launchers and several tonnes of explosives have been recovered.
▪ The men fled in a car and could be armed with assault rifles, said Capt.
▪ They are jointly charged with conspiracy to cause explosions and possessing Semtex and six assault rifles on or before April 13.
▪ Out of the darkness stepped four men with AK-47 assault rifles and Uzi submachine guns, Anaya said.
▪ All in all, it is enough to protect the occupants from an assault rifle or the shrapnel from a grenade.
▪ He said they were not assault rifles.
▪ Guards with AK47 assault rifles patrol the camp perimeter but there is no need to keep people in.
▪ Large-caliber firearms, semiautomatic pistols and assault rifles are forbidden to civilians altogether.
butt
▪ Witnesses told of beatings with rifle butts and sticks and the use of bayonets and guns, he said.
▪ Soldiers dispersed the peasants with rifle butts, and by nightfall, violence was sweeping through the province.
▪ Her rifle butt had given him a nasty knock, but there would be no lasting damage.
fire
▪ The Cheshires unleashed between 20 and 30 rounds of rifle fire to cover their withdrawal after they came under attack.
▪ On the screen, two cowboys were exchanging rifle fire at a distance of thirty meters or so.
▪ Their nine-month-old daughter Isidora is no longer rocked to the sound of rifle fire.
▪ Within minutes, the platoon was being pummeled by heavy machine gun and rifle fire.
▪ The air outside snapped with rifle fire.
▪ Those who advanced under the rifle fire of the Marines who had remained in position did not fall.
▪ The slightest movement above trench level drew rifle fire.
▪ The first rifle fire came with a falsetto crack.
hunting
▪ Two-thirds of the output from its factories is for civilian use - washing machines, prams and hunting rifles, for instance.
▪ So might Gianluigi's hunting rifle, for that matter.
▪ The gun case had room for six hunting rifles and there were two drawers underneath which were not locked.
range
▪ The Dragoons advanced to within rifle range and stopped to take aim.
▪ Once they found a herd, they sneaked up to within rifle range on foot.
▪ When Charlie heard the news of victory he was training some raw recruits on a rifle range in Edinburgh.
▪ So, we pulled back and sat outside of rifle range and watched the gunships work over this small forest.
▪ The army use a large acreage in the northern sector of the Pentlands as a training area and rifle range.
▪ There is a rifle range and climbing tower.
▪ Day Five saw the teams on the rifle ranges at Bulford.
▪ They watched the Dynmouth Hards performing at the rifle range, their black-frilled girls loitering beside them, seeming bored.
■ VERB
aim
▪ Then he aimed the rifle again, this time at one of the men in the front rank.
▪ The sentries at the Yalu River checkpoint aimed their rifles at me instead of letting me hurry across.
▪ Without glasses she couldn't even begin to play lawn tennis or aim a rifle.
▪ Soldiers demonstrated military toys like cameras to aim rifles and squishy nonlethal projectiles.
▪ The action of aiming a rifle can have many reasons and a vendetta is only one of many possibilities.
arm
▪ I told him I had twenty-two men with me, armed with fourteen rifles, as well as my own three rifles and shotgun.
▪ The men fled in a car and could be armed with assault rifles, said Capt.
▪ All were armed - some with rifles, others with spears, while nearly all wore swords and carried shields.
carry
▪ Petion carried a rifle, a Browning and several grenades.
▪ When you get down to it, in the bush, 1 man can carry 3 or 4 rifles.
▪ They carried rifles and had borrowed miners' helmets in place of their soft service caps.
▪ He carried the rifle in one hand, a couple of magazines in the other.
▪ The police in Baku carry automatic rifles.
▪ One carried a rifle by its stock, a. 30 -. 30, the muzzle bouncing off his toe.
▪ There came a day when he arrived for a lecture in army uniform and carrying a rifle.
▪ Our medic was carrying an M 16 rifle.
hold
▪ On the other side of the double row of barbed wire a guard was standing still holding his rifle at the ready.
▪ They are holding automatic rifles and wearing steel helmets.
▪ He held a loaded rifle thrust before him, as though it were bayoneted and he was advancing on a rioting crowd.
▪ Jacques Devraux followed them, holding his rifle at the ready until he was certain the big animal was dead.
▪ Marc Lepine entered the classroom holding a semi-automatic rifle.
raise
▪ Slowly he raised the rifle and placed it against the forehead of one of the soldiers.
▪ I ran to join them and raised my rifle to fire a burst for cover as they ran past me.
▪ Pat Buchanan raising a rifle over his head.
▪ Emerging from the crowd, he raised a 1964 Winchester rifle over his head.
shoot
▪ The sailors attacked stores owned by blacks and looted shooting galleries for rifles and ammunition.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Fifteen-year-old Nicola Child was blasted with an air rifle in a cruel prank.
▪ I fired one magazine of an M16 rifle.
▪ I reached for our rifles but they had been removed.
▪ The guide picked up the rifle, shot and castrated him, and made off.
▪ The Knutes smiled, their rifles in hand.
▪ The rucksack and the rifle I had been carrying since yesterday evening seemed like a ton weight.
▪ The world overflows with these rifles and their banana clips.
▪ There was an ornate rifle mounted on the wall behind him.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Fisher rifled a pass to Dreher for an easy layup.
▪ He rifled through a filing cabinet in search of the memo.
▪ The robbers rifled the cash register and fled with $188 in cash.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Immigrants slump on their luggage, soldiers point rifles at Scorsese, and the horse urinates for the fourth time.
▪ The Lieutenant's servant rifled the dead man's possessions.
▪ There is no evidence that the rifling and thievery of the files ever occurred.
▪ While you're away sipping sangria on a sun-soaked beach, some intruder may be rifling your unguarded home.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rifle

Rifle \Ri"fle\, v. t.

  1. To grove; to channel; especially, to groove internally with spiral channels; as, to rifle a gun barrel or a cannon.

  2. To whet with a rifle. See Rifle, n.,

Rifle

Rifle \Ri"fle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Rifled; p. pr. & vb. n. Rifling.] [F. rifler to rifle, sweep away; of uncertain origin. CF. Raff.]

  1. To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.

    Till time shall rifle every youthful grace.
    --Pope.

  2. To strip; to rob; to pillage.
    --Piers Plowman.

    Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye: If not, we'll make you sit and rifle you.
    --Shak.

  3. To raffle. [Obs.]
    --J. Webster.

Rifle

Rifle \Ri"fle\, n. [Akin to Dan. rifle, or riffel, the rifle of a gun, a chamfer (cf. riffel, riffelb["o]sse, a rifle gun, rifle to rifle a gun, G. riefeln, riefen, to chamfer, groove), and E. rive. See Rive, and cf. Riffle, Rivel.]

  1. A gun, the inside of whose barrel is grooved with spiral channels, thus giving the ball a rotary motion and insuring greater accuracy of fire. As a military firearm it has superseded the musket.

  2. pl. (Mil.) A body of soldiers armed with rifles.

  3. A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.

    Rifle pit (Mil.), a trench for sheltering sharpshooters.

Rifle

Rifle \Ri"fle\, v. i.

  1. To raffle. [Obs.]
    --Chapman.

  2. To commit robbery. [R.]
    --Bp. Hall.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
rifle

1775, "portable firearm having a spirally grooved bore," used earlier of the grooves themselves (1751), noun use of rifled (pistol), 1680s, from verb meaning "to cut spiral grooves in" (a gun barrel); see rifle (v.2).

rifle

"to plunder," early 14c. (implied in rifling), from Old French rifler "strip, filch, plunder, peel off (skin or bark), fleece," literally "to graze, scratch" (12c.), probably from a Germanic source (compare Old English geriflian "to wrinkle," Old High German riffilon "to tear by rubbing," Old Norse rifa "to tear, break"). Related: Rifled; rifling.

rifle

"to cut spiral grooves in" (a gun barrel), 1630s, probably from French rifler, from Old French rifler "to scratch or groove" (see rifle (v.1)). Related: Rifled; rifling.

Wiktionary
rifle

n. A long firearm firing a single projectile, usually with a rifled barrel to improve accuracy. vb. 1 to search with intent to steal; to ransack, pillage or plunder. 2 To scan many items (especially papers) in a set, quickly. ''(See also riffle)'' 3 To add a spiral to the interior of a gun bore to make a fired bullet spin in flight to improve range and accuracy. 4 To strike something with great power.

WordNet
rifle
  1. v. steal goods; take as spoils; "During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners" [syn: plunder, despoil, loot, reave, strip, ransack, pillage, foray]

  2. go through in search of something; search through someone's belongings in an unauthorized way; "Who rifled through my desk drawers?" [syn: go]

rifle

n. a shoulder firearm with a long barrel and a rifled bore; "he lifted the rifle to his shoulder and fired"

Gazetteer
Rifle, CO -- U.S. city in Colorado
Population (2000): 6784
Housing Units (2000): 2586
Land area (2000): 4.290603 sq. miles (11.112611 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.039498 sq. miles (0.102299 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 4.330101 sq. miles (11.214910 sq. km)
FIPS code: 64255
Located within: Colorado (CO), FIPS 08
Location: 39.536992 N, 107.782709 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 81650
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Rifle, CO
Rifle
Wikipedia
Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves (" rifling") cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile (for small arms usage, called a bullet), imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the orientation of the weapon. When the projectile leaves the barrel, this spin lends gyroscopic stability to the projectile and prevents tumbling, in the same way that a properly thrown American football or rugby ball behaves. This allows the use of aerodynamically-efficient pointed bullets (as opposed to the spherical balls used in muskets) and thus improves range and accuracy. The word "rifle" originally referred to the grooving, and a rifle was called a "rifled gun." Rifles are used in warfare, hunting and shooting sports.

Typically, a bullet is propelled by the contained deflagration of an explosive compound (originally black powder, later cordite, and now nitrocellulose), although other means such as compressed air are used in air rifles, which are popular for vermin control, hunting small game, formal target shooting and casual shooting (" plinking").

Rifle (fashion)

'''Rifle '''is an Italian clothing company founded in 1958 in Prato. They were most famous for their jeans during the 1980s, especially in the USSR, Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the rest of Eastern Europe. They were also very popular in Switzerland, UK, Israel and Holland between 1975 and 1990. There are upscale lines of Rifle Jeans, called Super Rifle, Golden Rifle and Royal Rifle.

Rifle (disambiguation)

A rifle is a firearm with a stock and a barrel that has a spiral groove or grooves ("rifling") cut into its interior.

Rifle may also refer to:

Usage examples of "rifle".

There were still some addax antelope down in the dunes, but mostly the local sheiks had sportingly shot them out, using high-powered rifles with telescopic sights from the backs of Land Rovers.

He waved a pulse cartridge rifle unsteadily with one hand, shooting again and again, but three armored cymeks pounced upon him from their own aerofoil vessels.

The rods were already coming out of the core as the muffled sound of automatic rifle fire sounded from the lower levels of the aft compartment.

This made Raymo a figure of respect among his fellow prisoners during the twenty months they would spend in the fortress of La Cabana listening to rifle reports from the moat, where the executions took place, each crisp volley followed by a precise echo, an afterclap, as the prisoners thought about the dog that lived in the moat, lapping up blood.

Van Duyn was ahorse with his rifle and was followed by the deCourteneys, with Gabrielle in boyish hose and jerkin, and the other eleven, mostly young, with two women among them.

One, two, and he had the rifle up to his shoulder, aiming at the black spot of the owl.

The blazes were flaring high, and the man was standing by the tool shed, aiming a rifle.

Those glistening, dripping fangs were an inch from his legs when he squeezed the trigger, the rifle recoiling into his shoulder as the heavy slug tore through the arachnid and it stopped dead.

He was a natural horseman and an excellent shot with bow, arbalest and rifle, and often went off by himself for days at a time, hunting in the high ranges of hills where the Breas ran white and fast through the locks and ponds of the old canal system.

Sir John Ardagh pointed out there would be nothing to prevent a state from constructing rifles of a new pattern and storing them in arsenals until needed.

He had few friends here, but his father was at his back, and Axel stood on the other side of the room with his rifle within reach.

Axel and Jed were still there, Axel leaning on his rifle, pulling on his beard.

Ilias gave him a tight smile back, then dodged sideways to recapture Balin as she ran toward one of the fallen Gardier rifles.

Twelve thousand tons displacement, four 250-mm rifles in twin turrets fore and aft, eight 175mm in four twin-tube wing turrets, eight 155mm in barbette mounts on either side, 200mm main belt, face-hardened alloy steel.

The uniform was on fire, and the mob behind fell on the Spartan wounded in the street below the Marine position with clubs and tools and bayoneted rifles.