rifle

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A gun with a long barrel that is fired from the shoulder.

   The hunters raised their rifles and aimed at the deer.

2. 2
   verb

   To search quickly through things, often messily or in order to steal.

   She rifled through the drawer looking for her keys.

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.

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