Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use rifle in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Rifle means a firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel. Example: “She made a mess when she rifled through the stack of papers, looking for the title document.”

Examples of rifle by meaning

nounA 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...

verbTo quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing).

  • She made a mess when she rifled through the stack of papers, looking for the title document.

verbTo 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

verbTo 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

More sentences with rifle

  • The rifle was originally chambered for 9mm, but had since been modified for a larger, wildcat caliber.From the entry chamber
  • If you want to keep using that rifle, you'll have to rebore the barrel.From the entry rebore
  • An efficient rifle or shotgun can harvest a deer for venison.From the entry harvest
  • A heavy machine gun, anti-materiel rifle, or rocket launcher might be a crew-served weapon.From the entry crew-served weapon
  • Convinced that his uncle was a warlock, he rifled through his attic, looking for demonic artifacts.From the entry demonic
  • The soldiers held their rifles at the ready and listened for the enemy.From the entry at the ready
  • The riflemen had not been issued their weapons yet, and hence they trained with wooden mock-up rifles.From the entry rifleman
  • The hunter unslung his rifle and took a bead on the hare.From the entry unsling
  • She plans to rebarrel the rifle, as it is not shooting straight.From the entry rebarrel
  • A heavy machine gun, anti-materiel rifle, or rocket launcher might be crew-served.From the entry crew-served
  • The buck jumped at the shot of the rifle.From the entry jump
  • A single rifle shot downed the mighty beast.From the entry down
  • She's a crack shot with that rifle.From the entry crack
  • A rifle has more precise aim than a shotgun.From the entry aim
  • Dianne loaded a cartridge into the chamber of the rifle, then prepared to take aim at the target.From the entry chamber
  • Chewbacca blasted the Stormtroopers with his laser rifle.From the entry blast
  • I departed, rifle in hand, in search of huntable wildlife.From the entry huntable
  • The special forces in the area had some special issue weaponry in addition to the standard rifle and service pistol.From the entry special issue
  • This catalog has milsurp rifles and ammunition on sale.From the entry milsurp
  • The new recruit is absolutely worthless with a rifle. Blimey, she wouldn't be able to hit the broad side of a barn if I asked her to.From the entry not be able to hit the broad side of a barn
  • This makes that string much more challenging because of the farther rifle targets being engaged with pistols.2023 January 19, The Outlaw Travis James, “Cowboy Action Shooting Categories”, in Action Shooting Network. From the entry string
  • I don’t know, but I should start by gettin’ me a rifle: we got the reveneurs a-comin’.2020 April 28, Kimberly Altamirano, “CPAPs, Hickeys and Biscuits” (0:20:03 from the start), in Lynda Tarryk, director, The Conners, season…. From the entry revenuer
  • Feeling like a soldier deserting his comrades, I lowered my rifle and ran back to the farmplace.2020, T. G. Anderston, Whispers: A Story of Meeting the Devil and Surviving. From the entry farmplace
  • The big trout feed aggressively and tend to lose their caution in the rifles.2017, Bill Barich, “On the Glories of Autumn”, in California Fly Fisher. From the entry riffle
  • We raise ten-pound rubber rifles and hold them parallel to the ground.2016, Eric Fair, Consequence, page 28. From the entry on fire
  • The two lawmen punched his ticket with four well-aimed rifle shots.2016, Dusty Richards, Deadly Is the Night, Pinnacle Books, →ISBN, retrieved 08 Dec 2021. From the entry lawman
  • 'If I 'ad a done, he'd a taken the rifles, wouldn't he?2013, William Brodrick, The Discourtesy of Death, London: Little, Brown, →ISBN, page 247. From the entry a
  • To his right, leaning against the wall with his sniper rifle, was Caz.2013, Jake Wood, Among You: The Extraordinary True Story of a Soldier Broken by War, Mainstream Publishing, unnumbered page. From the entry jimpy
  • Salem politely admired the rifles, but his disinterest was hard to mask.2012, Dave Eggers, chapter 26, in A Hologram for the King, San Francisco: McSweeney’s Books, page 231. From the entry disinterest
  • As with handguns and rifles, some ammos are more accurate than others.2011, Mark Brannon, Tom Hanrahan, Shooting Sporting Clays, page 39. From the entry ammo
  • V.'s deputies standing behind a truck about a hundred feet away, crosshairing a rifle straight at him.2011, Carolyn Dennis-Willingham, No Hill for a Stepper, page 234. From the entry crosshair
  • An instructor informed us that in battle, your rifle is your best friend.2010, Art Seamans, I See, Said the Blind Man, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 48. From the entry best friend
  • Then the other grabbed the rifle from his friend and said, “You wet end!2010, Michael Causey, The Shaman's Wolf, page 164. From the entry wet end
  • He held the rifle near his hip and squeezed the trigger on the launcher.2010 August 25, Rob Ruediger, “A Cure for Jake”, in Severed 2: The Rapture, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 318. From the entry flumpf
  • Stoll was still standing on the car bonnet with the catch of his large-calibre repeating rifle off.2009, Stefan Aust, Anthea Bell, Baader-Meinhof: the inside story of the R.A.F., page 308. From the entry bonnet

Meaning of rifle

  1. noun A firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.
  2. noun A rifleman.
  3. noun An artillery piece with a rifled barrel.

Full definition of rifle

Questions about rifle in a sentence

How do you use rifle in a sentence?
Rifle is used as a noun and verb. For example: “She made a mess when she rifled through the stack of papers, looking for the title document.”
What is a short sentence with rifle?
“The ball rifled off the bat.”
What does rifle mean?
Rifle means a firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rifle (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use rifle in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/rifle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.