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.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Rifle comes from Old French rifler, which meant both “to plunder” and “to scratch.” The plundering sense developed through “search for valuables” into “search thoroughly.” English later borrowed the word again in the scratching sense for cutting grooves inside a gun barrel, and such guns came to be called rifles in the mid-18th century.

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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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary