rifle

Plural: rifles

Noun

• a shoulder firearm with a long barrel and a rifled bore
  • "he lifted the rifle to his shoulder and fired"
• A firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.
• 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

Verb Forms: rifled, rifling, rifles

• To search through and steal items, often hastily.
• steal goods; take as spoils
• go through in search of something; search through someone's belongings in an unauthorized way
  • "Who rifled through my desk drawers?"
• To quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing). (See also riffle)
• To commit robbery or theft.
• To search with intent to steal; to ransack, pillage or plunder.
• To strip of goods; to rob; to pillage.
• To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.
• To add a spiral groove to a gun bore to make a fired bullet spin in flight in order to improve range and accuracy.
• To cause (a projectile, as a rifle bullet) to travel in a flat ballistic trajectory.
• To move in a flat ballistic trajectory (as a rifle bullet).
• To dispose of in a raffle.
• To engage in a raffle.

Examples

• He would often RIFLE through the dictionary to find obscure, high-scoring words.
• She made a mess when she rifled through the stack of papers, looking for the title document.

Synonyms

despoil, foray, go, loot, pillage, plunder, ransack, reave, strip

Anagrams of rifle