Definition of "rifle"

rifle

/ˈɹaɪfəl/

noun
plural rifles
1. (weaponry) A firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.
  Quotations
  Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride.
  1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict‎
  In the June days of 1848 Baudelaire reports seeing revolutionaries (he might have been one of them) going through the streets of Paris with rifles, shooting all the clocks.
  1995, Richard Klein, “Introduction”, in Cigarettes are sublime, Paperback edition, Durham: Duke University Press, published 1993, page 8
2. (military, usually in the plural, dated) A rifleman.
3. (weaponry) An artillery piece with a rifled barrel.
4. A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.
verb
third-person singular simple present rifles, present participle rifling, simple past and past participle rifled
1. (intransitive) To quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing). (See also riffle)
2. (intransitive) To commit robbery or theft.
  Quotations
  Thither repair at accustomed times their harlots […] not with empty hands, for they be as skilful in picking, rifling, and filching as the upright men.
  1566, Thomas Harman, A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors
3. (transitive) To search with intent to steal; to ransack, pillage or plunder.
  Quotations
  thine enemies […] shall ransack and rifle all the things of Edom; and shall search out all thy hidden commodities, and carry them away at once
  1633, Joseph Hall, A paraphrase upon the hard texts of Scripture
4. (transitive) To strip of goods; to rob; to pillage.
  Quotations
  Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye: / If not, we'll make you sit and rifle you.
  c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene v]
  Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the island, had found the skeleton — it was he that had rifled it; he had found the treasure; he had dug it up […]
  1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883
5. (transitive) To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.
  Quotations
  Time shall rifle every youthful grace.
  1715–1720, Homer, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book I”, in The Iliad of Homer, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […]
6. (transitive) To add a spiral groove to a gun bore to make a fired bullet spin in flight in order to improve range and accuracy.
7. (transitive) To cause (a projectile, as a rifle bullet) to travel in a flat ballistic trajectory.
  Quotations
  Davies's cross was headed away from danger by Robert Huth, only for Baird to take the ball in his stride and rifle his right-footed effort towards the corner from the edge of the box.
  2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0 - 2 Fulham”, in BBC‎
  But a Norwegian player rifled off a point shot that sailed into the back of the net.
  2011 Fighting for Gold: The Story of Canada's Sledge Hockey Paralympic Gold by Lorna Schultz Schultz Nicholson
8. (intransitive) To move in a flat ballistic trajectory (as a rifle bullet).
  Quotations
  The ball rifled off the bat.
  2014, Alexander Rebelle, Lights of Summer: The Run for Glory
9. (transitive, obsolete) To dispose of in a raffle.
  Quotations
  I've at one throw / Rifled away the diadem of Spain; […]
  c. 1600 (date written; first published 1657), attributed to Thomas Dekker, John Day, William Houghton, Lust’s Dominion: Or, The Lascivious Queen. A Tragedie, London: […] J. Chappell, Jun. […], published 1818, Act V, scene i, page 68
  If you like not that course but intend to be rid of her , rifle her at a tavern , where you may swallow down some fifty wiseacres ' sons and heirs to old tenements and common gardens , like so many raw yolks with muscadine to bedward Kate.
  1605, John Webster, Northward Ho
10. (intransitive, obsolete) To engage in a raffle.
  Quotations
  We'll strike up a drum, set up a tent, call people together, put crowns apiece, let's rifle for her
  1596, George Chapman, The Blind Beggar of Alexandria

Definition of "rifle"

rifle

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