as in to search
to look through (as a place) carefully or thoroughly in an effort to find or discover something
rifled the desk drawer in search of the insurance policy
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in shotgun
Related Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rifle
Samantha-Jo Roth, The Washington Examiner, 8 Aug. 2025
The gunman, who was armed with a rifle, was eventually shot and killed by officers on the scene.
—Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 7 Aug. 2025
Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 29 July 2025
Also in 7 on 7 work, Wilson rifled in a TD throw to Achane, with Gay Jr. in coverage.
—Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 10 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for rifle
Verb
Twenty-seven Senate Democrats voted last week to block the sale of 20,000 fully automatic rifles to Israel’s national police, and 24 opposed the sale of heavy-grade munitions.
—Samantha-Jo Roth, The Washington Examiner, 8 Aug. 2025
The gunman, who was armed with a rifle, was eventually shot and killed by officers on the scene.
—Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 7 Aug. 2025
Noun
Tagovailoa rifled a pass to Waddle for 10 yards....
—Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 29 July 2025
Also in 7 on 7 work, Wilson rifled in a TD throw to Achane, with Gay Jr. in coverage.
—Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 10 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for rifle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rifle
Verb
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Deputies searched for the toddler and man throughout the day.—
Jennifer Rodriguez,
Kansas City Star,
24 Aug. 2025
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Crews are searching for body in the Ohio River after a man reportedly jumped from the Purple People Bridge on Aug. 23, according to a news release from the Cincinnati Fire Department.—
Aaron Valdez,
The Enquirer,
24 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Pirro said a blanket ban on possessing shotguns and rifles violates the court's 2022 ruling that struck down a New York gun law and held that people have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.—
Landon Mion,
FOXNews.com,
21 Aug. 2025
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The couple loaded their Remington shotguns with three steel buckshots apiece.—
Nathaniel Rich,
Harpers Magazine,
20 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Unsurprisingly, pin-straight Type 1 hair is the easiest to comb or brush.—
Kat Merck,
Wired News,
12 Aug. 2025
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Ey strategically combs and hairsprays her bangs to hide her hair loss.—
Ashley Abramson,
Allure,
4 Aug. 2025
Noun
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On April 19, 1775, the crack of a musket marked the first official command for colonists to fire upon the red-coated army of Britain’s King George III.—
Lisa Meyers McClintick,
USA Today,
21 June 2025
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Depictions of Warren tend to show him in military uniform, with a sword or a musket.—
Eliza McGraw,
Smithsonian Magazine,
17 June 2025
Verb
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Chores follow: mucking the chicken coop and turtle cages, raking the backyard, organizing tools in the workshop.—
Chandler Fritz,
Harpers Magazine,
20 Aug. 2025
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Another key strategy for Sunderland to create those wide situations was through raking crossfield passes, most effectively struck by centre-back Luke O’Nien.—
Thom Harris,
New York Times,
13 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Beretta traces its history to 1526, when Bartolomeo Beretta (d. 1565), a rifle barrel maker in the small northern Italian town of Gardone, sold 185 arquebus barrels—a handheld long gun and a forerunner to the modern rifle—to the Republic of Venice.—
Giacomo Tognini,
Forbes,
25 Mar. 2025
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The worshipers insisted on congregating to pray at the crucifix in the local church and threatened to shoot with an arquebus – a long gun used during the Renaissance period – anyone who got in their way.—
Hannah Marcus,
The Conversation,
25 Sep. 2020
Noun
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The flintlock pistol that Torres is given by the Yautja to fight his fellow prisoners is known by Predator fans as the Raphael Adolini 1715 pistol for an engraved plate that says just that.—
Louis Peitzman,
Vulture,
13 June 2025
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Although a gunshot from a flintlock pistol lasts only an eye blink, the sound is composed of numerous elements: the squeeze of the trigger, the strike of the firing mechanism against the flint, the ignition of the powder, the slug’s passage through the barrel, the report, the impact.—
Alexis Soloski,
New York Times,
3 Jan. 2025
Noun
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First-generation matchlock rifles, tanks, and aircraft had major limitations but improved over time.—
Paul Scharre,
Foreign Affairs,
15 Feb. 2018
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Guns are a part of American life, and have been since the very beginning, from the matchlock muskets arming the earliest colonies to the Colt revolvers and Winchester rifles of the Old West to the Glock handgun of today.—
Kyle Mizokami,
Popular Mechanics,
7 Mar. 2018
Cite this Entry
“Rifle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rifle. Accessed 30 Aug. 2025.
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