rifle
n. countablen. a long gun that you hold against your shoulder to fire. It has a long barrel with grooves inside to make the bullet spin, which helps it hit targets far away.
n. a firearm with a long, rifled barrel designed to be fired from the shoulder. The internal helical grooves impart spin to the projectile, significantly increasing accuracy and range compared to smoothbore weapons.
The hunter carried a rifle over his shoulder.
During the competition, the athletes must remain perfectly still while aiming their rifle at the distant target.
Modern infantry units are typically equipped with a versatile assault rifle capable of both semi-automatic and burst fire to suit various combat environments.
Originally short for “rifled gun”, referring to the spiral grooves inside the barrel. From Middle English riflen (“to rob, plunder, search through”), from Old French rifler (“to lightly scratch, scrape off, plunder”), from Old High German riffilōn (compare German riffeln (“to score, make grooves in, ripple”), archaic Dutch rijfelen (“to scrape”), Old English rifelan, riflian (“to wrinkle”)), frequentative of Proto-Germanic *rīfaną (compare Old Norse rífa (“to tear, break”)). More at rive.
Commonly used with verbs like 'fire', 'aim', or 'load'.