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 WebRobert Ross, Robb Report, 20 Mar. 2024
People were trapped in the open, incinerated, asphyxiated and strafed with machine-gun fire.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024
The film’s fashion reputation preceded it; fans with temporary machine-gun tattoos mobbed the red carpet.
—Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, The Atlantic, 10 Mar. 2024
Getting hooked on Hearn’s machine-gun delivery led to the Lakers becoming his favorite team.
—Scott Howard-Cooper., Los Angeles Times, 3 Mar. 2024
The melody and Coriolanus’ calls to Lucy Gray come alive in the woods, prompting him to machine-gun the trees to stop the noise.
—EW.com, 17 Nov. 2023
All morning, fighting could be heard throughout the area, most of it machine-gun fire and shelling, as Israeli troops advancing deeper into Gaza clashed with Hamas fighters.
—Patrick Kingsley Avishag Shaar-Yashuv, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2024
Its spine stretched from Winchester in New Haven, Connecticut, to Colt in Hartford to Smith & Wesson in Springfield, Massachusetts, and north to machine-gun maker Saco Lowell in Maine.
—James Bandler, ProPublica, 21 Nov. 2023
Hundreds of thousands have fled to the south, leaving a silence broken only by the pop of machine-gun fire and the heavy thrum of Israeli tanks.
—Steve Hendrix, Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2023
San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Feb. 2023
Kayla Guo, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2024
In a tightly wound, entendre-replete, machine gun verse, Lamar fired back by refuting the designation and setting himself apart from his peers and former collaborators.
—Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 25 Mar. 2024
Officers responding to shooting scenes were recovering more casings, despite the fact that machine guns have been banned at the federal and state level in some form since the 1930s, in the days of Tommy-gun-toting Chicago gangsters like Al Capone and John Dillinger.
—Kim Bellware, Washington Post, 21 Mar. 2024
After all, the technical legal issue before the court was not the Second Amendment and gun rights but rather a question of statutory meaning: do guns modified with bump stocks count as machine guns?
—Noah Feldman, The Mercury News, 9 Mar. 2024
His videos about weapons have gotten 557 million views on such topics as grenade launchers, Nazi machine guns and the gun used to kill Abraham Lincoln.
—David Ingram, NBC News, 7 Mar. 2024
The Supreme Court leans in favor of upholding a ban on bump stocks that enable rifles to work like machine guns.
—Anthony De Leon, Los Angeles Times, 29 Feb. 2024
The Justice Department argued that ATF's interpretation of the definition of machine gun is the correct and best one.
—Melissa Quinn, CBS News, 28 Feb. 2024
Officers dressed in black uniforms with helmets and body armor walked up to Pierson carrying machine guns, ordering him into the back of their truck.
—The Courier-Journal, 28 Mar. 2024
Adjective
That means every loudspeaker gets enough juice to make explosions, machine-gun fire, and screaming psycho-killers come to life in the comfort of a condominium.
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 20 Mar. 2024
People were trapped in the open, incinerated, asphyxiated and strafed with machine-gun fire.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024
The film’s fashion reputation preceded it; fans with temporary machine-gun tattoos mobbed the red carpet.
—Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, The Atlantic, 10 Mar. 2024
Getting hooked on Hearn’s machine-gun delivery led to the Lakers becoming his favorite team.
—Scott Howard-Cooper., Los Angeles Times, 3 Mar. 2024
The melody and Coriolanus’ calls to Lucy Gray come alive in the woods, prompting him to machine-gun the trees to stop the noise.
—EW.com, 17 Nov. 2023
All morning, fighting could be heard throughout the area, most of it machine-gun fire and shelling, as Israeli troops advancing deeper into Gaza clashed with Hamas fighters.
—Patrick Kingsley Avishag Shaar-Yashuv, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2024
Its spine stretched from Winchester in New Haven, Connecticut, to Colt in Hartford to Smith & Wesson in Springfield, Massachusetts, and north to machine-gun maker Saco Lowell in Maine.
—James Bandler, ProPublica, 21 Nov. 2023
Hundreds of thousands have fled to the south, leaving a silence broken only by the pop of machine-gun fire and the heavy thrum of Israeli tanks.
—Steve Hendrix, Washington Post, 19 Nov. 2023
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
A week after graduating high school in 1942, Ms. McCormack got an engineering job at an Ohio defense plant manufacturing machine guns and shipping them overseas to Allied forces.
—Kayla Guo, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2024
In a tightly wound, entendre-replete, machine gun verse, Lamar fired back by refuting the designation and setting himself apart from his peers and former collaborators.
—Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 25 Mar. 2024
Officers responding to shooting scenes were recovering more casings, despite the fact that machine guns have been banned at the federal and state level in some form since the 1930s, in the days of Tommy-gun-toting Chicago gangsters like Al Capone and John Dillinger.
—Kim Bellware, Washington Post, 21 Mar. 2024
After all, the technical legal issue before the court was not the Second Amendment and gun rights but rather a question of statutory meaning: do guns modified with bump stocks count as machine guns?
—Noah Feldman, The Mercury News, 9 Mar. 2024
His videos about weapons have gotten 557 million views on such topics as grenade launchers, Nazi machine guns and the gun used to kill Abraham Lincoln.
—David Ingram, NBC News, 7 Mar. 2024
The Supreme Court leans in favor of upholding a ban on bump stocks that enable rifles to work like machine guns.
—Anthony De Leon, Los Angeles Times, 29 Feb. 2024
The Justice Department argued that ATF's interpretation of the definition of machine gun is the correct and best one.
—Melissa Quinn, CBS News, 28 Feb. 2024
Officers dressed in black uniforms with helmets and body armor walked up to Pierson carrying machine guns, ordering him into the back of their truck.
—The Courier-Journal, 28 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'machine-gun.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near machine-gun
Cite this Entry
“Machine-gun.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/machine-gun. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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