rifles
n. countablen. long guns that you hold against your shoulder to fire. They are designed to shoot bullets very accurately over long distances.
n. firearms with a long, rifled barrel designed to be fired from the shoulder. The internal grooving of the barrel imparts spin to the projectile for increased accuracy and range.
The soldiers cleaned their rifles before the morning drill.
Hunters often use rifles equipped with scopes to track deer from a safe distance in the woods.
The transition from smoothbore muskets to rifled barrels revolutionized infantry tactics by significantly extending the effective engagement range of individual soldiers during the nineteenth century.
Usually refers to the physical weapons; the plural form is standard when discussing a group of these firearms.