Word.ws English Dictionary

pinfire

pinfire noun: an obsolete kind of brass cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge.

Noun

pinfire (plural pinfires)

  1. An obsolete kind of brass cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge.
    • "An early French make, I should say; one of Lefaucheux's probably," said Carrados. "You have removed the cartridges?"
      "Why, yes," admitted the sergeant, producing a matchbox from his pocket. "They're pin-fire, you see, and I'm not too fond of carrying a thing like that loaded in my pocket as I'm...1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados

Forms of pinfire

pluralpinfires

Origin of pinfire

From pin + fire.

Questions about pinfire

What does pinfire mean?
Pinfire means an obsolete kind of brass cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge.
What part of speech is pinfire?
Pinfire is a noun.
What is the plural of pinfire?
The plural of pinfire is pinfires.

Words near pinfire in the dictionary

  1. pinfeed
  2. pinfeeds
  3. Pinfield
  4. Pinfields
  5. pinfinger
  6. pinfire
  7. pinfires
  8. pinfish
  9. pinfishes
  10. pinfold
  11. pinfolded

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pinfire (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.

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