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
Sally Ventura
june 23, Literary Hub, 23 June 2025
Maybe grazing a teen with an errant hunting rifle in front of his grandfather is one of those things.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 21 June 2025
Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 7 Mar. 2025
Hopefully, Henry can rifle off another near 2,000-yard season to help catapult Baltimore to the big show.
—James Brizuela, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for rifle
Verb
In the student council room police found approximately 27 unexpended rifle and 30 unexpended shotgun shells along with 18 expended rifle bullets and 17 expended shotgun shells.
—Sally Ventura
june 23, Literary Hub, 23 June 2025
Maybe grazing a teen with an errant hunting rifle in front of his grandfather is one of those things.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 21 June 2025
Noun
Brunson attempted to split the double but ultimately rifled a pass to Hart, who lost track of the shot clock as the time expired at the buzzer.
—Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 7 Mar. 2025
Hopefully, Henry can rifle off another near 2,000-yard season to help catapult Baltimore to the big show.
—James Brizuela, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for rifle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rifle
Verb
-
Investigators are still searching for leads in the death of a 27-year-old man who was shot in Denver five years ago, according to the police department.—
Lauren Penington,
Denver Post,
25 June 2025
-
This happened during the Great Depression as Congress was searching for a way to boost revenue and protect domestic businesses from cheap imports.—
Mike Patton,
Forbes.com,
25 June 2025
Noun
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His pregnant wife Suzanne Belcher, riding shotgun, jotted Love’s gems down on a notepad.—
Elias Leight,
Billboard,
18 June 2025
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Other weapons, such as repeating shotguns or semi-automatic firearms, are more difficult to acquire, with buyers needing a gun-ownership card and a firearms pass.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
11 June 2025
Verb
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The event is the culmination of a monthslong production by wedding planners and, very likely, by teams of lawyers who have combed through the couple’s complex finances to create an ironclad prenuptial agreement.—
Alicia Adamczyk,
Fortune,
27 June 2025
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Personnel from the sheriff’s dive and search-and-rescue teams combed the area in search of the missing trio, with assistance from the California Highway Patrol and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Technical Rescue Team.—
Andrew J. Campa,
Los Angeles Times,
25 June 2025
Noun
-
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
-
Depictions of Warren tend to show him in military uniform, with a sword or a musket.—
Eliza McGraw,
Smithsonian Magazine,
17 June 2025
Verb
-
The charges are so ridiculous that Lander’s and Baraka’s were immediately dropped, with a judge raking prosecutors over the coals in the latter case.—
New York Daily News Editorial Board,
New York Daily News,
19 June 2025
-
Jensen is raking at Double-A with a .302 batting average, five home runs and 35 RBIs.—
Jaylon Thompson,
Kansas City Star,
19 June 2025
Noun
-
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
-
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
-
First-generation matchlock rifles, tanks, and aircraft had major limitations but improved over time.—
Paul Scharre,
Foreign Affairs,
15 Feb. 2018
-
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 4 Jul. 2025.
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