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Rifle   /rˈaɪfəl/   Listen
noun
Rifle  n.  
1.
A gun, the inside of whose barrel is grooved with spiral channels, thus giving the ball a rotary motion and insuring greater accuracy of fire. As a military firearm it has superseded the musket.
2.
pl. (Mil.) A body of soldiers armed with rifles.
3.
A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.
Rifle pit (Mil.), a trench for sheltering sharpshooters.


verb
Rifle  v. t.  (past & past part. rifled; pres. part. rifling)  
1.
To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off. "Till time shall rifle every youthful grace."
2.
To strip; to rob; to pillage. "Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye: If not, we'll make you sit and rifle you."
3.
To raffle. (Obs.)


Rifle  v. t.  
1.
To grove; to channel; especially, to groove internally with spiral channels; as, to rifle a gun barrel or a cannon.
2.
To whet with a rifle. See Rifle, n., 3.


Rifle  v. i.  
1.
To raffle. (Obs.)
2.
To commit robbery. (R.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Rifle" Quotes from Famous Books



... corn, forgetting or not knowing of the grubs and worms they pulled and the grasshoppers they ate. But all this is changed and now our sable friends and the high-soaring hawks are seldom molested. The fool with a rifle is very apt to shoot an eagle if the chance comes to him, but he has to be very sly ...
— My Boyhood • John Burroughs
... it went 'los'; the farce quickened to drama. A couple of idle soldiers, rifle-less and armed only with the bayonets at their belts, had edged near the door; others had disappeared behind the house; Judas, mincing on his feet like a soubrette, moved briskly away; and the corporal, ...
— Those Who Smiled - And Eleven Other Stories • Perceval Gibbon
... road was narrow, but we were lucky and met nothing, although we frequently overtook the immense wagons drawn by five or six yoke of oxen, and driven by the most ferocious-looking teamsters whom I have ever seen, brandishing enormous whips, which crack like rifle-shots in the woods. We found, however, that, being civilly entreated, they would always turn out of the road to let us pass. We were now at an elevation of probably six thousand feet, having been constantly ascending since we left Denver; ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 30. September, 1873 • Various
... we do," said Hofer, thoughtfully; "we have all vowed to God and the Holy Virgin that we will deliver the Tyrol from the enemy; and every man, every lad in our mountains and valleys, is ready to take up his rifle and fight for his dear ...
— Andreas Hofer • Lousia Muhlbach
... unmistakable outline of a snub-nosed rocket. The small flyer—or a jet, or whatever it was—had been fitted into a pocket in the side of the big structure as a ship into a berth, and it must have been set there to shoot from that enclosing chamber as a bullet is shot from a rifle barrel. ...
— The Time Traders • Andre Norton


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