autofire

A1U1T1O1F4I1R1E1

noun

A feature on a joystick or gamepad that permits automatic firing, as though the player were repeatedly pressing the fire button.

Scrabble 11

Meanings

nounautofire (uncountable)
  1. uncountablevideo gamesA feature on a joystick or gamepad that permits automatic firing, as though the player were repeatedly pressing the fire button.

    High-speed autofire and a choice of two joystick sizes are featured.

    1989 October, Popular Mechanics, volume 166, number 10
    2 more examples

    You start off with just seven clips of ammo and five grenades — so all you autofire merchants are in trouble. Only real soldiers, with an accurate eye and careful trigger finger need apply here.

    1988, Operation Wolf (review), Crash issue 59 (December 1988)

    Also the crappy joystick, the SJS1, is useless. It's as stiff as a Skoda's steering and there's no autofire on it. I can't help thinking that I made the worst investment of my life by buying this computer.

    1990 March, Letters: Your Sinclair, number 51
  2. uncountableliteratureA feature that allows a weapon to fire automatically.
verbautofire (third-person singular simple present autofires, present participle autofiring, simple past and past participle autofired)

present singular third person autofires · participle present autofiring · participle past autofired · past autofired

  1. engineeringTo fire automatically.

Origin

  1. Proto-Hellenic*autós
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₂ew
  3. Ancient Greekαὖ (aû)
  4. Ancient Greekτόν (tón)
  5. Ancient Greekαὐτός (autós)
  6. Ancient Greekαὐτο- (auto-)
  7. Proto-Indo-European*mn̥tós
  8. Proto-Hellenic*mətós
  9. Ancient Greekαὐτόμᾰτος (autómătos)
  10. Ancient Greekαὐτόμᾰτον (autómăton)
  11. Classical Latinautomatum
  12. New Latinautomaticus
  13. Englishautomaticclip.
  14. Englishauto-
  15. Proto-Indo-European*péh₂wr̥
  16. Proto-Germanic*fōr
  17. Proto-West Germanic*fuir
  18. Old Englishfȳr
  19. Middle Englishfyr
  20. Englishfire
  21. Englishautofire

From auto- + fire.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

autofire. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/autofire

MLA

“autofire.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/autofire. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “autofire,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/autofire.

Source: autofire on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.