Adjacent Words

Rifling definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RI'FLING, ppr. Plundering; seizing and carrying away by violence; grooving.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the cutting of spiral grooves on the inside of the barrel of a firearm [syn: grooving, rifling]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1797 1. the act or process of making spiral grooves 2. a system of spiral grooves in the surface of the bore of a gun causing a projectile when fired to rotate about its longer axis

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. the arrangement of grooves on the inside of a gun's barrel.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rifle Ri"fle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Rifled; p. pr. & vb. n. Rifling.] [F. rifler to rifle, sweep away; of uncertain origin. CF. Raff.] 1. To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off. Till time shall rifle every youthful grace. --Pope. 2. To strip; to rob; to pillage. --Piers Plowman. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye: If not, we'll make you sit and rifle you. --Shak. 3. To raffle. [Obs.] --J. Webster.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rifling Ri"fling, n. (a) The act or process of making the grooves in a rifled cannon or gun barrel. (b) The system of grooves in a rifled gun barrel or cannon. Shunt rifling, rifling for cannon, in which one side of the groove is made deeper than the other, to facilitate loading with shot having projections which enter by the deeper part of the grooves.