rifled

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of rifle.

   The thieves rifled the desk and scattered papers across the floor.

   Investigators found that the safe had been rifled overnight.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs: the simple past (thieves rifled the safe) and the participle after have or be (the safe had been rifled). Most uses are about ransacking and plunder, but the same form also belongs to the gunsmith's verb (the barrel was rifled), which is where the firearms adjective comes from. For a quick search through papers, riffle is a close neighbor.

2. 2
   adjective

   Cut with spiral grooves on the inside of a gun bore that make a fired bullet spin in flight, improving its range and accuracy.

   The rifled barrel gave the weapon far greater accuracy at long range.

   Soldiers traded their old smoothbores for rifled muskets that grouped shots tightly.

   Similargrooved

   Oppositesmoothbore

   Note

   A gunsmith's term for a bore cut with helical grooves. The grooves set the projectile spinning, and that gyroscopic spin holds it steady about its long axis, which cuts yaw and scatter over distance. The adjective is not comparable: a barrel is rifled or it is not, so it stands against smoothbore and never takes "more" or "very".

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