gun
Pluralguns
Pluralguns
- 1A weapon or other device that shoots bullets, shells, or other projectiles through a tube, such as a firearm or cannon.
The fortress wall held a row of guns pointed out toward the harbor.
From the shore, the rescue team used a line-throwing gun to send a rope out to the stranded fishing boat.
Note
The everyday sense may trace back to a woman's name. Middle English gunne or gonne possibly comes from Gunnhild, a given name once used as a nickname for engines of war. It was built from two Norse elements that both mean "battle." Convention, not stored energy, draws the line: a harpoon gun or ray gun counts, while a bow, which also stores energy, does not. Military usage narrows the word, as the artillery sense shows.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Gun comes from Middle English gunne or gonne and possibly ultimately from Gunnhild, a woman's name used for engines of war. en.wiktionary.org
- Gunnhild contains two Norse elements that both mean battle. pase.ac.uk
- A bow stores energy. archeryalberta.ca
- 2A firearm carried and used by one person, such as a pistol, revolver, rifle, or shotgun.
The detective drew her gun and aimed it at the doorway.
He concealed a compact gun beneath his jacket before leaving.
UsageCommon with fire, draw, load and point: drew her gun. You shoot someone with a gun.
- 3A hand tool worked by a trigger that applies something rather than shooting it, such as paint, glue, sealant, rivets, staples, or labels.
The mechanic pumped grease into the joint with a gun.
She squeezed the gun and laid a neat bead of sealant along the tile.
Note
The name follows the trigger grip even when nothing leaves the tool. A rivet gun, a screw gun, a price-label gun and a piercing gun all press their load into place. Which kind of gun is used can matter in practice. David Golinkin, writing on body piercing in Jewish law, warns that a piercing gun cannot be disinfected.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The updated English article is dated 2023 on the author's institution's website; 2024 is the collected-volume date cited by Wiktionary. schechter.edu
- David Golinkin warns in his discussion of body piercing in Jewish law that a piercing gun cannot be disinfected. schechter.edu
- 4A large cannon, especially one with a long barrel that fires shells at high speed on a flat path.
The naval gun sent a shell toward the enemy ridge on a nearly flat trajectory.
Coastal batteries mounted long-barreled guns for engaging ships at great range.
Similarcannon
Note
Artillery takes the everyday word and narrows it. Here the point is ballistic behavior: the shell leaves fast and travels low. In this traditional sense a gun is set apart from steep-firing howitzers and mortars, though modern pieces blur the line and the British Army calls its howitzers guns. A second military usage, a classification by bore and barrel length, defines the same word by measurement rather than by how it fires.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- In its narrower artillery sense, a gun has high muzzle velocity and a relatively flat trajectory. npshistory.com
- Traditional artillery classification distinguishes flat-firing guns from higher-trajectory howitzers and mortars. npshistory.com
- Modern howitzers can satisfy traditional criteria for guns, blurring the distinction. cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org
- British artillery terminology calls howitzers guns. royalartillerymuseum.com
- A military classification also defines guns by barrel length expressed in bore diameters. cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org
- 5A firearm or cannon discharged for a ceremonial salute or as a signal.
The fort fired its gun at noon to signal the change of watch.
A row of guns thundered in salute as the coffin passed.
UsageCommon in a 21-gun salute, hyphenated before the noun.
Similarcannon
Note
Ceremony and signaling keep the cannon's noise and drop its purpose. It also appears in place-bound phrases like the Tower guns, which a young man on Whitehall stops to hear in Stanley Weyman's Chippinge Borough (1906). What matters is the report, not the shot: these guns speak rather than strike.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Stanley J. Weyman wrote Chippinge Borough, published in book form in 1906, as shown on its title page. gutenberg.org
- The novel's opening places a young man walking down Whitehall. gutenberg.org
- The young man stops and listens to the Tower guns; “Tower guns” is the novel's wording. gutenberg.org
Less common meanings
- 6To cause an engine or vehicle to accelerate sharply.
She gunned the throttle and the boat surged forward.
Racers gun their engines the instant the flag drops.
UsageCommon with it, the engine, the motor, or the throttle: gun it, gunned the engine.
Similarrev, accelerate
- 7To set out to attack or take aim at someone, used with for.
Critics have been gunning for the director ever since his last film flopped.
Whenever he wins, his rivals gun for him twice as hard.
UsageMost often in the progressive: be gunning for someone.
- 8To make a determined effort to achieve or obtain something.
He's gunning to finish the marathon under four hours.
Ambitious young analysts are all gunning to make partner within a decade.
UsageTakes for + a goal or to + verb, most often in the -ing form: gunning for a promotion, gunning to win.
Note
George Ramsay and Amy Woodyatt, writing in 2023, describe John Landy, a rival of Bannister's, as gunning to break the four-minute barrier. When for is followed by a person rather than a prize, the meaning shifts to backing or hostility, as with the cheering sense.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- George Ramsay and Amy Woodyatt wrote the cited description in 2023. en.wiktionary.org
- They describe John Landy as a rival of Bannister's who was gunning to break the four-minute barrier. keyt.com
- 9The biceps, viewed as a sign of muscular strength.
All those curls and chin-ups paid off, and by summer his guns were stretching the sleeves of every T-shirt he owned.
He spent the whole summer lifting weights and came back to school with serious guns.
Similarbiceps
- 10A person who carries or uses a firearm, especially noted for how quickly they can draw and shoot.
Every outlaw feared the young gun who had never lost a duel.
The town brought in a hired gun to deal with the raiders.
UsageSet frames: the fastest gun in the West, a hired gun, a young gun.
Note
Metonymy turns the weapon into the person holding it. The tone is colloquial and often playful, which is why it suits westerns and their parodies.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The firearm-user sense of “gun” is metonymic. en.wiktionary.org
- 11
- 12A device that produces a narrow beam of electrons, used in older television tubes and similar displays.
The cathode-ray tube's gun swept a beam of electrons across the phosphor screen.
Misaligned guns in the old monitor produced blurry, off-color images.
Note
Electron gun is often shortened to plain gun, and the short form comes naturally when there are several. A color tube usually has three: a red gun, a green gun and a blue gun. In Number by Colors, Brand Fortner and Theodore E. Meyer describe the challenge of making each gun's electrons strike only the phosphors of its own color.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A color television tube usually has three electron guns, corresponding to red, green and blue. depts.washington.edu
- Brand Fortner and Theodore E. Meyer wrote Number by Colors. link.springer.com
- The book discusses directing each gun's electrons exclusively onto phosphors of the corresponding color. en.wiktionary.org
- 13To give strong, energetic support to a person or cause.
Everyone in the office is gunning for her to get the promotion she deserves.
Her whole family is gunning for her to win the final round.
UsageFriendly gunning for you (wanting you to win) uses the same words as hostile gunning for someone; context decides.
- 14To hunt small game or wildfowl with a firearm, chiefly used in the participial form, as in to go gunning.
Few people still gun for wildfowl on the bay, but a handful of old-timers row out before dawn every November.
When the season opens, they spend their weekends gunning in the thickets behind the farm, mostly for woodcock and grouse.
- 15A long surfboard with a pointed nose and a narrow shape, designed for riding large waves.
- 16Violent blasts or gusts of wind, especially as met with at sea.
- 17In cellular automata, a pattern that repeatedly produces and emits other moving patterns.
- 18Of a male prisoner, to masturbate while holding sustained eye contact with someone, typically a female prison officer, as a form of intimidation.
- 19A street thief or confidence trickster who preys on passers-by.
Showing meanings only.
More uses
- gun downto shoot someone
Practice
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Origin
Gunnhild, a woman's name built from the Norse words gunnr and hildr (each meaning "battle"), was once applied as a nickname to war engines, and it may be the source of Middle English gunne or gonne.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Gunnhild is a woman's name formed from Norse gunnr and hildr, both meaning battle. pase.ac.uk
- The name was formerly used as a nickname for war engines. en.wiktionary.org
- Gunnhild may be the source of Middle English gunne or gonne. en.wiktionary.org