gun

/ˈɡʌn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Ireland/ɡʊn/

gun noun: a device for shooting projectiles or ditto (a shooter), functioning through stored energy: a firearm, cannon, harpoon gun/spear gun, raygun, etc, not a bow and arrow, or slingshot. Also the nonstandard spelling of going to.

Noun (1)

gun (plural guns)

A device for shooting projectiles or ditto (a shooter), functioning through stored energy: a firearm, cannon, harpoon gun/spear gun, raygun, etc, not a bow and arrow, or slingshot.
- 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., […], →OCLC
- 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...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. A cannon with relatively long barrel, operating with relatively low angle of fire, and having a high muzzle velocity.
4. A cannon with a 6-inch/155mm minimum nominal bore diameter and tube length 30 calibers or more.
5. (figuratively) A firearm or cannon used for saluting or signalling.
  - 21-gun salute
  - 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., →OCLC, page 01
Any implement designed to fire a projectile from a tube.
- air-pressure pellet gun
- zipgun
A device or tool that projects a substance.
- squirt gun
- spray gun
A device or tool that applies something rather than projecting it.
- a rivet gun
- screw gun
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).
- 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
A pattern that "fires" out other patterns.
- 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)
(colloquial, metonymically) A person who carries or uses a gun (rifle, shotgun or handgun), particularly with reference to how quickly the person can draw and fire the gun.
- Some said that the cowboy was the fastest gun in the West.
- […] we had one lawman - Sheriff Dirty Herwick, "the slowest gun in the West." Dirty was a kindly man, a java addict whose knees knocked at the sight of blood. Back then, we winched our own car wrecks out of ravines and chased away mountain lions with kitchen brooms.1991 12, “Ski”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 256
An electron gun.
- 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
(colloquial, plural-normally) The biceps.
(in plural) Violent blasts of wind.
(Australia, New Zealand, slang) Someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, skilful, or cool.

Verb

gun (third-person singular simple present guns, present participle gunning, simple past and past participle gunned)

(transitive) To shoot with a gun.
- What's the use of foolishness like calling a gentleman bad names when he can gun you in the dark and you're no good even at striking matches?1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
(transitive) To cause to speed up.
- He gunned the engine.
(informal) To offer vigorous support to (a person or cause).
- We're all gunning for you.
(informal) To strongly desire or seek, and make a great effort to obtain (something which one is 'gunning for' or 'gunning to do').
- 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...
To seek to attack someone; to take aim at someone; used with for.
- He's been gunning for you ever since you embarrassed him at the party.
To practice fowling or hunting small game; chiefly in participial form: to go gunning.
(US, ambitransitive, slang) Synonym of gun down (“to masturbate while making sustained eye contact with someone — typically a female prison officer — as a form of intimidation”).
- […] 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
Synonyms:

gun down

Noun (2)

gun (plural guns)

(obsolete, slang) A magsman or street thief.
- 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

Proper noun capitalized: Gun

Gun

A Gbe language spoken in parts of Benin and Nigeria.

Also used as

gun is also the nonstandard spelling of going to.

gun meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

gun in Hindi

portable, short weapon, for hand use: बंदूक़ bandūq, तमंचा tamañcā, पिस्तौल pistaul

gun in Tamil

portable, short weapon, for hand use: துப்பாக்கி tuppākki

gun in Marathi

portable, short weapon, for hand use: बंदूक bandūk
less portable, long weapon: बंदूक bandūk

gun in Urdu

portable, short weapon, for hand use: بَنْدُوق bandūq, تَپَنْچَہ tapanca, تَمَنْچَہ tamanca
less portable, long weapon: تُفَن٘گ tufaṅg

More languagesFewer languages

gun in Bengali: বন্দুক bonduk
gun in Telugu: తుపాకీ tupākī
gun in Malayalam: തോക്ക് tōkkŭ
gun in Kannada: ಕೋವಿ kōvi
gun in Punjabi: ਬੰਦੂਕ
gun in Gujarati: બંદૂક bandūk
gun in Odia: ବନ୍ଧୁକ
gun in Sinhala: තුවක්කුවක් tuwakkuwak
gun in Assamese: বন্দুক bonduk, হিলৈ hiloi
gun in Nepali: बन्दुक, बन्दूक
gun in Pashto: تفنګچه tofangčá, تمانچه tamānčá, تومانچه tomānčá, توپنچه topančá
gun in Tagalog: baril
gun in Arabic: مُسَدَّس musaddas, طَبَنْجَة ṭabanja, مُسَدَّسَة musaddasa, مِدْفَع midfaʕ
gun in Malay: pistol, bedil, senapang
gun in Indonesian: pistol
gun in Thai: ปืน bpʉʉn
gun in Vietnamese: súng lục, súng sáu, súng ngắn, đại bác
gun in Myanmar: သေနတ် senat

Examples of gun in a sentence

Guns were considered improvements of crossbows and catapults.
Looking for wild meat to fill his family's freezer for the winter, the young man quietly raised his gun at the approaching deer.
It's... yeah, I think adding more guns into a situation is obviously the way to prevent shooting.2018 February 23, Richard Ayoade, The Last Leg, Season 14, Episode 5
The piercing gun cannot be disinfected and therefore there is a risk of transmitting hepatitis and other infections.2024, David Golinkin, “Is Body Piercing Permitted According To Jewish Law”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 4, page 193:
"They say he's the fastest gun in the whole goddamn world." "I thought Blackie was supposed to be the best," Harlow remarked.(Can we date this quote?), J.R. Roberts, Gundown in Paradise, Speaking Volumes, →ISBN:
They want to take on the fastest gun in town.2015 February 26, Neil Hickey, Adventures in the Scribblers Trade: The Most Fun You Can Have, iUniverse, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with gun

Synonyms of gun

gun down

Forms of gun

Noun
plural	guns
Verb
third-person singular present	guns
present participle	gunning
past participle	gunned
past	gunned

Past tense of gun: gunned

Plural of gun: guns

Origin of gun

From Middle English gunne, gonne, possibly from Gunnhild, a female given name formerly used as a nickname for engines of war (compare Nordic Gunn, a female name meaning “battle”). The name is composed of the Norse elements gunnr and hildr, both meaning "battle".

Related to ganef.

From gunna, from gonna, from going to.

Words formed from gun

Phrases with gun

147 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with gun

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gun

What does gun mean?: Gun means a device for shooting projectiles or ditto (a shooter), functioning through stored energy: a firearm, cannon, harpoon gun/spear gun, raygun, etc, not a bow and arrow, or slingshot.
What is gun in Hindi?: Gun in Hindi is बंदूक़ (bandūq), तमंचा (tamañcā), पिस्तौल (pistaul). See Gun meaning in Hindi.
How do you use gun in a sentence?: Guns were considered improvements of crossbows and catapults.
What part of speech is gun?: Gun can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce gun?: Gun is pronounced /ˈɡʌn/.
What is the plural of gun?: The plural of gun is guns.

Words near gun in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: gun (page history and authors); Gun (page history and authors); gun (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gun (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gun (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-gun.ogg.

Cite this entry: “gun.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gun. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.