rifle

/ˈɹaɪfəl/

rifle noun: a firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.

Image: Klewitz- Shotgun, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

rifle (plural rifles)

A firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.
- Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride.1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC
- In the June days of 1848 Baudelaire reports seeing revolutionaries (he might have been one of them) going through the streets of Paris with rifles, shooting all the clocks.1995, Richard Klein, “Introduction”, in Cigarettes are sublime, Paperback edition, Durham: Duke University Press, published 1993, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 8
(dated, plural-normally) A rifleman.
An artillery piece with a rifled barrel.
A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.

Verb

rifle (third-person singular simple present rifles, present participle rifling, simple past and past participle rifled)

(intransitive) To quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing).
- Near-synonym: riffle
- She made a mess when she rifled through the stack of papers, looking for the title document.
Synonyms:

riffle
(intransitive) To commit robbery or theft.
- Thither repair at accustomed times their harlots […] not with empty hands, for they be as skilful in picking, rifling, and filching as the upright men.1566, Thomas Harman, A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors
(transitive) To search with intent to steal.
- thine enemies […]shall ransack and rifle all the things of Edom; and shall search out all thy hidden commodities, and carry them away at once1633, Joseph Hall, A paraphrase upon the hard texts of Scripture
Synonyms:

ransack, pillage, plunder, loot
(transitive) To strip of goods; to rob; to pillage.
- Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye: / If not, we'll make you sit and rifle you.c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Ben, in his long, lonely wanderings about the island, had found the skeleton — it was he that had rifled it; he had found the treasure; he had dug it up […]1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
(transitive) To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.
- Time shall rifle every youthful grace.1715–1720, Homer, “Book I”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC
(transitive) To add a spiral groove to a gun bore to make a fired bullet spin in flight in order to improve range and accuracy.
(transitive) To cause (a projectile, as a rifle bullet) to travel in a flat ballistic trajectory.
- Davies's cross was headed away from danger by Robert Huth, only for Baird to take the ball in his stride and rifle his right-footed effort towards the corner from the edge of the box.2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0 - 2 Fulham”, in BBC
- But a Norwegian player rifled off a point shot that sailed into the back of the net.2011 Fighting for Gold: The Story of Canada's Sledge Hockey Paralympic Gold by Lorna Schultz Schultz Nicholson
(intransitive) To move in a flat ballistic trajectory (as a rifle bullet).
- The ball rifled off the bat.2014, Alexander Rebelle, Lights of Summer: The Run for Glory
(obsolete, transitive) To dispose of in a raffle.
- I've at one throw / Rifled away the diadem of Spain; […]c. 1600 (date written; first published 1657), attributed to Thomas Dekker, John Day, William Houghton, Lust’s Dominion: Or, The Lascivious Queen. A Tragedie, London: […] J. Chappell, Jun. […]...
- If you like not that course but intend to be rid of her , rifle her at a tavern , where you may swallow down some fifty wiseacres ' sons and heirs to old tenements and common gardens , like so many raw yolks with muscadine to bedward Kate.1605, John Webster, Northward Ho
(intransitive, obsolete) To engage in a raffle.
- We'll strike up a drum, set up a tent, call people together, put crowns apiece, let's rifle for her1596, George Chapman, The Blind Beggar of Alexandria

rifle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

rifle in Hindi

firearm with a rifled barrel: राइफल rāiphal, राइफ़ल rāifal

rifle in Tamil

துமுக்கி, நீண்ட குழல் கொண்ட வேட்டெஃகமாகும், பொதுவாக இரு கைகளாலும் பற்றப்பட்டு, துமுக்கியால் சுட்டேன்

rifle in Marathi

firearm with a rifled barrel: रायफल rāyphal

rifle in Urdu

firearm with a rifled barrel: رائِفَل rāifal

More languagesFewer languages

rifle in Bengali: রাইফেল raiphel
rifle in Telugu: రైఫిల్
rifle in Malayalam: ചുറക്കുഴൽ തോക്ക്, റൈഫിൾ, കൈത്തോക്ക്
rifle in Kannada: ಕೋವಿ, ತೋಕು, ಉದ್ದನೆಯ ಬಂದೂಕು, ರೈಫಲ್ಲು
rifle in Punjabi: ਬੰਦੂਕ bandūk
rifle in Gujarati: રાઈફલ, રાઇફલ
rifle in Odia: ରାଇଫଲ୍, ରାଇଫଲ
rifle in Sinhala: තුවක්කුව tuwakkuwa
rifle in Nepali: राइफल, राईफल
rifle in Tagalog: riple
rifle in Arabic: بُنْدُقِيَّة bunduqiyya
rifle in Malay: raifal
rifle in Indonesian: senapan
rifle in Thai: ไรเฟิล rai-fə̂l, ปืน bpʉʉn
rifle in Vietnamese: súng trường
rifle in Myanmar: ရိုင်ဖယ် ruinghpai
Kashmiri: رَفَل rafal

Examples of rifle in a sentence

The rifle was originally chambered for 9mm, but had since been modified for a larger, wildcat caliber.
If you want to keep using that rifle, you'll have to rebore the barrel.
An efficient rifle or shotgun can harvest a deer for venison.

All 40 example sentences with rifle

Synonyms of rifle

All synonyms of rifle

Forms of rifle

Noun
plural	rifles
Verb
third-person singular present	rifles
present participle	rifling
past participle	rifled
past	rifled

Past tense of rifle: rifled

Plural of rifle: rifles

Origin of rifle

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.

Phrases with rifle

Words that rhyme with rifle

Questions about rifle

What does rifle mean?: Rifle means a firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.
What is rifle in Hindi?: Rifle in Hindi is राइफल (rāiphal), राइफ़ल (rāifal). See Rifle meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is rifle?: Rifle can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce rifle?: Rifle is pronounced /ˈɹaɪfəl/.
What is the plural of rifle?: The plural of rifle is rifles.

Words near rifle in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: rifle (page history and authors); rifle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rifle (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rifle (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rifle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rifle (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rifle (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rifle (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-rifle.ogg.

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