rifles

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of rifle.

   The museum displays antique rifles from several wars.

   Range officers checked each of the rifles for safety before the match.

   Note

   The plural does more work than the firearm alone. It also covers rifled artillery pieces and the emery-coated wooden strips used to sharpen scythes. In a dated use it means riflemen, a sense normally found in the plural, so "the rifles" could name the soldiers rather than their weapons. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, so "she rifles" is never a count of guns.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of rifle.

   He rifles through the filing cabinet whenever a document goes missing.

   The detective rifles the suspect's pockets for any hidden evidence.

   Note

   Here the construction carries the meaning. With through (he rifles through the drawer) it is a quick, hurried search. With a direct object (he rifles the drawer) the search usually aims at theft: ransacking, plundering, stripping of goods. A gunsmith who rifles a barrel cuts its spiral groove instead. In the searching sense, keep it apart from riffle, which is easily confused with it.

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