rifle

Pluralrifles

Formsrifles, rifling, rifled

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A firearm fired from the shoulder, with a long barrel cut with spiral grooves that improve its range and accuracy.

   She steadied the rifle against her shoulder and waited for the deer to step clear.

   Recruits spent the morning at the range learning to fire their rifles accurately.

   Similargun

   Note

   The name began as a shortening of "rifled gun", after the spiral grooves cut inside the barrel, so the weapon is named for its bore. Behind that lies Old French rifler, "to scratch, scrape off, plunder". That is why one English spelling covers both cutting the grooves and ransacking a room. In military and technical writing, a rifle is set against the smoothbore gun, whose barrel carries no grooves.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To search quickly through a collection of items, such as papers, the contents of a drawer, or a pile of clothing.

   He rifled through the filing cabinet, looking for the lease.

   Customs officers will rifle through your luggage if anything seems off.

   Similarrummage, riffle, search, root

   Note

   Usually followed by through: you rifle through papers, a drawer, a suitcase. It sits close to riffle, which is lighter. Riffling flips quickly through pages or cards, while rifling suggests rummaging, often leaving a mess behind. Unlike the ransacking sense, nothing need be taken; the hurry and the disorder are the point.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To cut a spiral groove into the bore of a gun so that a fired bullet spins in flight, improving its range and accuracy.

   Gunsmiths rifle the barrels by drawing a spiral cutter through the bore.

   The armory rifled older muskets to extend their effective range.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To search through a place, container, or someone's belongings with the intent to steal; to ransack.

   Burglars rifled the office overnight, taking laptops and petty cash.

   Looters rifle abandoned houses after every major storm.

   Similarransack, loot, burgle, plunder

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To strip a person or place of goods; to rob or pillage.

   Highwaymen rifled the coach passengers of their money and jewelry.

   Soldiers were ordered not to rifle the towns they passed through.

   Similarrob, pillage, plunder, loot, strip

   Note

   Here the object is the victim, not the hiding place: you rifle a traveler, or a coach full of passengers, of what they carry. Shakespeare's robbers in The Winter's Tale threaten to "make you sit and rifle you". In Stevenson's Treasure Island, Ben Gunn has rifled a skeleton. Compare the ransacking sense, where the object is the room or container searched.

6. 6
   verbintransitive

   To commit robbery or theft; to engage in stealing.

   Bands of outlaws rifled across the countryside, leaving farms stripped bare.

   Men who rifle for a living rarely die in their beds.

   Similarsteal, plunder, rob, loot, pillage

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To seize something and carry it off by force; to snatch away.

   A gull rifled the sandwich straight from her hand.

   Spring floods can rifle whole trees from the riverbank and sweep them miles downstream.

   Similarsnatch, grab, seize, wrench

   Note

   A sense that leans toward the figurative: what is rifled is carried off for good. Pope's Iliad gives the verb to Time: "Time shall rifle every youthful grace." An impersonal force suits it well as subject. Where the other theft senses empty a place or a person, the object here is the prize itself.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To cause a projectile, such as a ball or bullet, to travel in a fast, flat trajectory.

   The quarterback rifled a pass between two defenders.

   Shortstops must rifle the ball to first base in one smooth motion.

   Similarfire, whip, zip

   Note

   A sportswriter's verb, borrowed from the bullet: players rifle a shot, a pass or a throw, always hard and flat. The ball or the effort is the object, and off or towards often follows, as in "rifled off a point shot" or "rifle his right-footed effort towards the corner". When the ball itself is the subject, English switches to its intransitive partner.

9. 9
   verbintransitive

   To move through the air in a fast, flat path, as a bullet fired from a gun does.

   Her serve rifled across the court before he could react.

   Line drives rifle off aluminum bats at frightening speeds.

   Similarzip, whiz, shoot, rocket

10. 10
    nouncountable

    An artillery piece whose barrel is cut with spiral grooves to spin and stabilize its shells.

    The battery's three-inch rifle could strike targets two miles away.

    Naval rifles aboard the cruiser shelled the coastal defenses.

    Similargun, cannon

    Note

    Artillery took the word once its barrels, too, were cut with spiral grooves. Calling a gun a rifle sets it apart from the smoothbore cannon. Bore size or setting often comes first, as in a three-inch rifle or naval rifles. In that company the word means a heavy gun on a mount, not the shoulder weapon.

11. 11
    nouncountable

    A wooden strip coated with emery or another abrasive, used to sharpen scythes.

    The mower drew his rifle along the scythe's edge after every few rows.

    Sharpening rifles hung from nails in the barn beside the scythes.

    Similarstrickle

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