Definition of "gun"

gun¹

/ɡʌn/

noun
plural guns
1. A device for projecting a hard object very forcefully; a firearm or cannon.
  Quotations
  They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect.
  1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […]
  Well, I've always been progun, you know that. It's... yeah, I think adding more guns into a situation is obviously the way to prevent shooting. I think in a way, if we take the guns away, the shootings may escalate. And I think that's why he's so firm on literally arming everyone. I think if you don't have a gun in your hands... well, let's not find out what that world would be.
  2018 February 23, Richard Ayoade, The Last Leg, Season 14, Episode 5
  1. A very portable, short firearm, for hand use, which fires bullets or projectiles, such as a handgun, revolver, pistol, or Derringer.
  2. A less portable, long firearm that fires bullets or projectiles; a rifle, either manual, automatic or semi-automatic; a flintlock, musket or shotgun.
  3. (military) A cannon with relatively long barrel, operating with relatively low angle of fire, and having a high muzzle velocity.
  4. (military) A cannon with a 6-inch/155mm minimum nominal bore diameter and tube length 30 calibers or more. See also: howitzer; mortar.
  5. (figurative) A firearm or cannon used for saluting or signalling.
    Quotations
    It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. […]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.
    1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., page 01
2. A device operated by a trigger and acting in a manner similar to a firearm.
  1. Any implement designed to fire a projectile from a tube.
  2. A device or tool that projects a substance.
  3. A device or tool that applies something rather than projecting it.
3. (surfing) A long surfboard designed for surfing big waves (not the same as a longboard, a gun has a pointed nose and is generally a little narrower).
  Quotations
  by the winter of 1962, the Brewer Surfboards Hawaii gun was the most in-demand big-wave equipment on the North Shore.
  2000, Drew Kampion, surfline.com
4. (cellular automata) A pattern that "fires" out other patterns.
  Quotations
  The glider gun on the bottom of the NOT circuit emits a continuous stream of gliders, while the data stream source emits a glider only when there is a value of 1 in the stream […] .
  2000, Gary William Flake, The computational beauty of nature
  It would be especially interesting if someone can find an "airplane gun", which generates airplanes at regular intervals.
  2007 February 23, Frank, “Life on the Edge”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎ (Usenet)
  Greene's period-416 2c/5 spaceship gun
  2010, Andrew Adamatzky, Game of Life Cellular Automata, page 74
5. (colloquial, metonymically) A person who carries or uses a rifle, shotgun or handgun.
  Quotations
  De Niro plays Frank Sheeran, the real-life South Philly truck driver who moonlighted, over the second half of the 20th century, as a hired gun for the mafia.
  2019 October 31, A. A. Dowd, “Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro reunite for one last gripping crime epic, The Irishman”, in AV Club‎
6. (television) An electron gun.
  Quotations
  The problem is figuring out how to get the electrons from the red gun to hit only the red phosphors, the electrons from the blue gun to hit only the blue phosphors, and so on.
  2012, Brand Fortner, Theodore E. Meyer, Number by Colors, page 202
7. (colloquial, usually in the plural) The biceps.
8. (nautical, in the plural) Violent blasts of wind.
9. (colloquial) An expert.
10. (Australia, slang) Someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool.
verb
third-person singular simple present guns, present participle gunning, simple past and past participle gunned
1. (transitive) To cause to speed up.
2. (informal) To offer vigorous support to (a person or cause).
3. (informal) (gunning for something or gunning to do something) make a great effort.
  Quotations
  Australian John Landy, one of Bannister’s rivals also gunning to break the four-minute barrier, took more than a second off the Briton’s time in Turku, Finland, a few weeks later.
  2023, George Ramsay, Amy Woodyatt, “‘Like a chairlift up Everest’: Once running’s supreme challenge, has the value of a four-minute mile diminished?”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, CNN
4. To seek to attack someone; to take aim at someone; used with for.
5. To practice fowling or hunting small game; chiefly in participial form: to go gunning.
6. (transitive, intransitive, prison slang) To masturbate while observing and visible to a corrections officer.
  Quotations
  In the cell diagonally across from mine, a prisoner regularly “gunned down” the nurse on her morning rounds. He deliberately masturbated so that she'd see him through the cell door window as he ejaculated.
  2004, Jens Soering, Yoga of Heart
  […] all inmates participated in such conduct, and […] "the inmates gunned only female staff, not the all-male security staff," he said.
  2010, BNA's Employment Discrimination Report

gun²

noun
plural guns
1. (obsolete, slang) A magsman or street thief.
  Quotations
  To discover […] how the honest poor are compelled to hob-and-nob with the “shoful pitcher” and the “gun,” it is necessary to visit the vast nursery-grounds of crime.
  1863, Blanchard Jerrold, Signals of Distress in Refuges and Homes of Charity (etc.), page 2

gun³

verb
1. Nonstandard spelling of going to.

Definition of "gun"

gun1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations

gun2

noun

Quotations

gun3

verb

gun¹

gun²

gun³