SINCE 1828
assault rifle
nounDefinition of assault rifle
: any of various intermediate-range, magazine-fed military rifles (such as the AK-47) that can be set for automatic or semiautomatic fire
also
: a rifle that resembles a military assault rifle but is designed to allow only semiautomatic fire
Examples of assault rifle in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Police and the gunman — who was armed with an assault rifle and at least three handguns — engaged in two confrontations. — Emily Stewart, Vox, "Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh: what we know," 28 Oct. 2018 Security in churches gained additional scrutiny in November after 26 people were killed at a small Texas church when man with an assault rifle opened fire on them during a service. . . . . . . . — Julia O'donoghue, NOLA.com, "Taking guns into Louisiana churches will soon be easier," 30 May 2018 Aaron said the gunman arrived at the restaurant, sat in the parking lot for four minutes and shot two people with an assault rifle. — Sheila Burke, BostonGlobe.com, "4 people killed, others wounded in Nashville Waffle House shooting," 22 Apr. 2018 Families of the Sandy Hook victims sued Remington, saying the manufacturer of the military-style assault rifle used by the gunman bears some responsibility for the attack. — Matthew Haag, New York Times, "Remington, Centuries-Old Gun Maker, Files for Bankruptcy as Sales Slow," 25 Mar. 2018 Daily Beast reporter Taylor Lorenz pointed out on Twitter that Jake has both featured guns on his vlog and has a tattoo of an assault rifle on his thigh. — Caitlin Wolper, Teen Vogue, "Jake Paul Interviewed Marco Rubio About Parkland and Gun Control Reform," 13 Mar. 2018 The high school #NeverAgain movement started after a former student with an assault rifle killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Feb. 14. — Karen Farkas, cleveland.com, "Ohio colleges support peaceful protests at high schools; student actions will not jeopardize admission," 28 Feb. 2018 The answer requires going all the way back to the arms buildup during the Cold War, as C.J. Chivers describes in The Gun, a book on the invention of the assault rifle. — Olivia B. Waxman, Time, "Why Americans Started Buying Military-Style Weapons Like the One Used in the Florida Shooting," 16 Feb. 2018 Now is that answer banning all guns and banning all assault rifles? — Michelle Holmes, AL.com, "Civil talk about guns? See Americans make it happen," 4 Apr. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'assault rifle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Last Updated
16 Feb 2019
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The first known use of assault rifle was in 1964
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