Synonyms
Examples of rifle in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Sarah Lapidus, The Arizona Republic, 19 Apr. 2024
The Covenant School shooter, armed with two assault-like rifles and a handgun, killed the head of school, a teacher, a custodian and three 9-year-old students.
—Kelly Puente, USA TODAY, 19 Apr. 2024
While she was stopped at the intersection, a man armed with a semiautomatic rifle and wearing a black hoodie and a Halloween mask got out of the Acura behind her, walked up to her window, pointed the gun at her and hopped into the back seat of the Durango.
—David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 19 Apr. 2024
On March 7, five days before an Alameda County judge would have decided whether to make the order permanent, Del Mar called 911 to report that Barry illegally entered her home on Saginaw Circle, armed with an AR-15 rifle.
—Nate Gartrell, The Mercury News, 17 Apr. 2024
During a seven-month period Avila bought fifty-two guns, including seventeen AK-47 style rifles, two AR-15 variants, and two .50 caliber weapons.
—Ieva Jusionyte, Rolling Stone, 16 Apr. 2024
Their leader was a young actor named George Harris III who had made his way from New York City to San Francisco in 1967, the same year he was famously captured by the photojournalist Bernie Boston at an antiwar protest, tucking flowers into the barrels of the rifles held by the military police.
—Penelope Green, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024
The load includes 5,000 AK-47s, machine guns, sniper rifles, RPG-7s and over 500,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition.
—NBC News, 9 Apr. 2024
Enemies kidnap a young Furiosa from her mother, who chases after her while holding a rifle in an eerily similar fashion to Charlize Theron in Fury Road.
—Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 9 Apr. 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
Noun
However, Jette reiterated numerous times that law enforcement officers found no evidence of any rifles, backpacks or signs of a large group of five people having crossed Kelly's property.
—Sarah Lapidus, The Arizona Republic, 19 Apr. 2024
The Covenant School shooter, armed with two assault-like rifles and a handgun, killed the head of school, a teacher, a custodian and three 9-year-old students.
—Kelly Puente, USA TODAY, 19 Apr. 2024
While she was stopped at the intersection, a man armed with a semiautomatic rifle and wearing a black hoodie and a Halloween mask got out of the Acura behind her, walked up to her window, pointed the gun at her and hopped into the back seat of the Durango.
—David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 19 Apr. 2024
On March 7, five days before an Alameda County judge would have decided whether to make the order permanent, Del Mar called 911 to report that Barry illegally entered her home on Saginaw Circle, armed with an AR-15 rifle.
—Nate Gartrell, The Mercury News, 17 Apr. 2024
During a seven-month period Avila bought fifty-two guns, including seventeen AK-47 style rifles, two AR-15 variants, and two .50 caliber weapons.
—Ieva Jusionyte, Rolling Stone, 16 Apr. 2024
Their leader was a young actor named George Harris III who had made his way from New York City to San Francisco in 1967, the same year he was famously captured by the photojournalist Bernie Boston at an antiwar protest, tucking flowers into the barrels of the rifles held by the military police.
—Penelope Green, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024
The load includes 5,000 AK-47s, machine guns, sniper rifles, RPG-7s and over 500,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition.
—NBC News, 9 Apr. 2024
Enemies kidnap a young Furiosa from her mother, who chases after her while holding a rifle in an eerily similar fashion to Charlize Theron in Fury Road.
—Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 9 Apr. 2024
Verb
While agents were rifling around the rapper’s 11,376 square foot home at 2 Star Island Drive, a Miami Herald photograph captured the chaotic scene outside.
—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.
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Cite this Entry
“Rifle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rifle. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
rifle
2 of 4 verb
rifled; rifling
-f(ə-)liŋ 
: to cut spiral grooves on the inside of a barrel of
rifled arms
rifle
3 of 4 noun1
a
: a weapon with a long rifled barrel that is designed to be fired from the shoulder
b
: a rifled artillery piece
2
plural
: a body of soldiers armed with rifles
Etymology
Verb
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"
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