Synonyms
Examples of rifle in a Sentence
Emerson Clarridge, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 Apr. 2024
Over 5,000 AK-47s, machine guns, sniper rifles, RPG-7s and over 500,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition were sent to Ukraine.
—John Bacon, USA TODAY, 9 Apr. 2024
The video also showed that a rifle, handguns, flash-bang and smoke grenades were recovered from the scene, along with ammunition and body armor, but officials did not say whether Savannah was armed when she was gunned down.
—Nathan Solis, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2024
In Virginia, one editor insisted that Wide Awakes hid rifles under their capes.
—Jon Grinspan, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Apr. 2024
The officer saw Estep wearing a bulletproof vest, carrying an assault-type rifle, a handgun in his waistband, and another handgun holstered on his side.
—Jeff A. Chamer, Charlotte Observer, 26 Mar. 2024
That pistol was one of the guns found at Union Station following the shooting along a wall with a backpack next to two AR-15-style rifles and backpacks.
—Joseph Hernandez, Kansas City Star, 25 Mar. 2024
The state allows open carry and concealed carry for firearms including handguns and rifles.
—Hannah Pinski, The Courier-Journal, 25 Mar. 2024
Learn more › While there are plenty of budget rifle scopes, the technology behind thermal scopes used to be prohibitively expensive.
—Amanda Oliver, Field & Stream, 21 Mar. 2024
Madeleine Marr, Miami Herald, 27 Mar. 2024
In contrast to the smoothbore cannons on contemporary Western tanks, the L30 is rifled.
—David Axe, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2024
Just three minutes later, Núñez was denied by a flailing Onana on the stroke of halftime but the ball dropped at the feet of Salah, who rifled home to complete a rapid turnaround on the stroke of halftime.
—Sam Joseph, CNN, 17 Mar. 2024
From the 11:50 mark of the first half to the 5:02 mark, San Diego State rifled off 6-0 spurt ... followed by an 8-0 burst from Colorado State ... followed by an 8-0 answer from the home team ... followed by a 5-0 silencer from the plucky visitors.
—Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Feb. 2024
Rantanen opened the scoring 1:23 into the contest with his 28th of the season, intercepting a Devils clearing attempt and rifling the puck past Vanecek.
—Allan Kreda, USA TODAY, 7 Feb. 2024
No one is, but Stroud is slightly bigger and can rifle a pass.
—Mike Preston, Baltimore Sun, 19 Jan. 2024
The hackers then use the malware to harvest as many credentials as possible belonging to various employees and devices on the infected network and to rifle around the network.
—Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 23 Jan. 2024
Left-winger José María lobs a ball over to Messi who sits it on his left foot and finally has space and rifles a low drive into the corner.
—John Hopewell, Variety, 16 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rifle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Verb (1)
Middle English, from Anglo-French rifler to scrape off, plunder, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German riffilōn to saw, obsolete Dutch rijffelen to scrape
Verb (2)
perhaps from French rifler to scratch, file, from Middle French, to scrape, plunder
and Verb (3)
Verb (1)
14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1
Verb (2)
1635, in the meaning defined above
Noun
1756, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Verb (3)
1937, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing rifle
Articles Related to rifle
Dictionary Entries Near rifle
Cite this Entry
“Rifle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rifle. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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Kids Definition
rifle
2 of 4 verb
rifle
3 of 4 nounVerb
Middle English riflen "to steal or carry away by force," from early French rifler "to scrape off, plunder"; of Germanic origin
Verb
perhaps from French rifler "to scratch, file," from early French, "to scrape off, plunder"
More from Merriam-Webster on rifle
Nglish: Translation of rifle for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of rifle for Arabic Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about rifle
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