Word.ws English Dictionary

gunplay

/ˈɡʌnˌpleɪ/

gunplay noun: the discharge of firearms, usually with violent intent and in confrontations.

Noun

gunplay (usually uncountable, plural gunplays)

  1. (usually) The discharge of firearms, usually with violent intent and in confrontations.
    • In the aftermath of the Iraq War, the streets of Baghdad were sometimes filled with gunplay.
    • The one consoling thought was that there might be gunplay before the night was over—Dish had never been in a gun battle but he reasoned that if bullets flew thick and fast Jake might stop one of them, which could change the whole situation.1985, Larry McMurty, The Lonesome Dove, Simon & Schuster, published 2010, →ISBN, page 114
  2. (usually) A sexual practice involving the use of a (usually unloaded) firearm for physical and mental stimulation.
    • My problem with gunplay is that it could lead to very bad habits. They're always loaded, even when they're "not loaded", and if you get used to thinking of them as not loaded you're going to get careless.1998 August 5, the wharf rat [username], “Re: ATTENTION, People new to "BDSM"”, in soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm (Usenet)
    • The recent fuss about gunplay isn't an ickiness issue but a safety argument.1999 October 21, Malcolm McMahon, “Re: A proposal: soc.subculture.bdsm-ykiok?”, in soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm (Usenet)

Examples of gunplay in a sentence

  • Cop action films revelled in scenes of action and violence with the male body at the center engaging in fistfights, kickboxing, car chases, and gunplay.2006, Philippa Gates, Detecting Men: Masculinity and the Hollywood Detective Film, State University of New York Press, published 2006...
  • The agents were outnumbered, outgunned, and way off the beaten track, but Becky quickly understood that nobody had planned on any gunplay.2010, Terrence E. Poppa, Drug Lord: A True Story: The Life and Death of a Mexican Kingpin, Cinco Puntos Press, published 2010, →ISBN, page...
  • When the professor turned out to be too warped even for my tastes — consensual knifeplay is one thing; drunken gunplay quite another […]2009, Quince Mountain, “Cowboy for Christ”, in Jeff Sharlet, Peter Manseau, editors, Believer, Beware: First-person Dispatches from the...

Forms of gunplay

pluralgunplays

Origin of gunplay

From gun + play.

Questions about gunplay

What does gunplay mean?
Gunplay means the discharge of firearms, usually with violent intent and in confrontations.
How do you use gunplay in a sentence?
Cop action films revelled in scenes of action and violence with the male body at the center engaging in fistfights, kickboxing, car chases, and gunplay.
What part of speech is gunplay?
Gunplay is a noun.
How do you pronounce gunplay?
Gunplay is pronounced /ˈɡʌnˌpleɪ/ (US).
What is the plural of gunplay?
The plural of gunplay is gunplays.

Words near gunplay in the dictionary

  1. gunpapers
  2. gunpeople
  3. gunperson
  4. gunpersons
  5. gunpit
  6. gunplay
  7. gunplays
  8. gunpoint
  9. gunpoke
  10. gunpokes
  11. gunport

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gunplay (page history and authors). 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gunplay.wav.

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