ma·chine-gun
mə-ˈshēn-ˌgən 
: characterized by rapidity and sharpness : rapid-fire
a comic's machine-gun delivery
machine-gunned; machine-gunning; machine-guns
: to shoot at, wound, or kill (someone or something) with a machine gun
… machine-gunned a marauding gang of terrorists outside the U.S. embassy …—
Terry Eagleton
Terry EagletonA few years later someone machine-gunned to death the prosecutor who wanted to try the group for killing the soldiers.—Paul Berman
Paul Berman
machine gunner
noun
or less commonly machine-gunner
plural machine gunners also machine-gunners
These battalions were composed of the hardened infantrymen—riflemen, machine gunners, grenadiers, and mortarmen—who carried the main burden of the war.
—Shelby L. Stanton
Shelby L. Stanton
plural machine guns
: a gun for sustained rapid fire that uses bullets
broadly
: an automatic weapon
Examples of machine-gun in a Sentence
Noun
They heard the sound of machine-gun fire.
Recent Examples on the Web
Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 16 June 2025
Hood directed artillery fire under enfilading machine-gun fire.
—Christian Datoc, The Washington Examiner, 12 June 2025
San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Feb. 2023
Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 4 July 2025
They're treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars.
—Mandy Taheri, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for machine-gun
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Adjective
Baddies are plugged with machine-gun rounds so powerful their corpses bounce off cars.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 16 June 2025
Hood directed artillery fire under enfilading machine-gun fire.
—Christian Datoc, The Washington Examiner, 12 June 2025
Verb
As someone who grew up in the Dodgers’ family and now can’t stand the sight of them, who wants to beat them as Buddy Rich might machine-gun his snare drum.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Feb. 2023
Noun
The 34-year-old man and his 25-year-old girlfriend, both Oakland residents, were charged with being felons in possession of firearms, possessing a machine gun, and possessing property that was stolen from the U.S. Coast Guard in Oakland, court records show.
—Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 4 July 2025
They're treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars.
—Mandy Taheri, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for machine-gun
Cite this Entry
“Machine-gun.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/machine-gun. Accessed 14 Jul. 2025.
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