: a machine gun with a revolving cluster of barrels fired once each per revolution
Examples of Gatling gun in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Raymond, a hard warman to the end, kept the Times building safe by mounting two Gatling guns in a second-floor window.
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Matthew Karp, Harpers Magazine, 29 Apr. 2025
Since the Saya de Malha Bank has been known to entice pirates and other sea marauders, Landi also planned to mount a Gatling gun on the Aisland.
—Ian Urbina, Los Angeles Times, 28 Mar. 2025
Another solution being touted is more old-fashioned: a modern version of the Gatling gun called the M61 Vulcan, which was developed decades ago.
—Dina Kraft, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 Oct. 2024
The automated Phalanx system features Gatling guns that can fire up to 4,500 20-millimeter rounds a minute, engaging projectiles or other targets at extremely close range.
—Brad Lendon, CNN, 2 Feb. 2024
The same gun models were used by private security forces, federal and state troops, and police departments to put down labor strikes; in 1892, the Pennsylvania National Guard used Gatling guns to end a strike at the Carnegie Steel Company.
—Audrey Kurth Cronin, Foreign Affairs, 22 Nov. 2023
The oak trees around us are spewing acorns like bullets from a Gatling gun.
—John Kelly, Washington Post, 4 Oct. 2023
Sitting Bull and other Native American warriors seeking to assert their original rights to the land harassed the surveyors trying to build the railroad, though the Gatling guns of the U.S. Army mostly protected the workers.
—Mickey Butts, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Sep. 2023
The weapon combines a 20-millimeter Gatling gun that fires at a rate of either 3,000 or 4,500 shots per minute, with radar to search for and track targets.
—Larry Greenemeier, Scientific American, 19 July 2010
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Matthew Karp, Harpers Magazine, 29 Apr. 2025
Since the Saya de Malha Bank has been known to entice pirates and other sea marauders, Landi also planned to mount a Gatling gun on the Aisland.
—Ian Urbina, Los Angeles Times, 28 Mar. 2025
Another solution being touted is more old-fashioned: a modern version of the Gatling gun called the M61 Vulcan, which was developed decades ago.
—Dina Kraft, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 Oct. 2024
The automated Phalanx system features Gatling guns that can fire up to 4,500 20-millimeter rounds a minute, engaging projectiles or other targets at extremely close range.
—Brad Lendon, CNN, 2 Feb. 2024
The same gun models were used by private security forces, federal and state troops, and police departments to put down labor strikes; in 1892, the Pennsylvania National Guard used Gatling guns to end a strike at the Carnegie Steel Company.
—Audrey Kurth Cronin, Foreign Affairs, 22 Nov. 2023
The oak trees around us are spewing acorns like bullets from a Gatling gun.
—John Kelly, Washington Post, 4 Oct. 2023
Sitting Bull and other Native American warriors seeking to assert their original rights to the land harassed the surveyors trying to build the railroad, though the Gatling guns of the U.S. Army mostly protected the workers.
—Mickey Butts, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Sep. 2023
The weapon combines a 20-millimeter Gatling gun that fires at a rate of either 3,000 or 4,500 shots per minute, with radar to search for and track targets.
—Larry Greenemeier, Scientific American, 19 July 2010
Cite this Entry
“Gatling gun.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Gatling%20gun. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.
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