Meaning

(weaponry) A firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel..

Definitions by Sense

1. (weaponry) A firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.
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.
5. (intransitive) To quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing).
6. (intransitive) To commit robbery or theft.
7. (transitive) To search with intent to steal.
8. (transitive) To strip of goods; to rob; to pillage.

Example Sentences

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.

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.

Near-synonym: riffle

She made a mess when she rifled through the stack of papers, looking for the title document.

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.

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

Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye: / If not, we'll make you sit and rifle you.

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 […]

Word Forms

• rifles
• rifling
• rifled

Synonyms for rifle

Related Words

When Should You Use Rifle?

Use rifle when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

Practice This Word

Frequently Asked Questions