rifle

plural rifles

1. engineeringA firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.

   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

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   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

2. datedplural normallygovernmentA rifleman.
3. engineeringAn artillery piece with a rifled barrel.
4. A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.

present singular third person rifles · participle present rifling · participle past rifled · past rifled

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

   Near-synonym: riffle

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

   Synonyms: riffle

2. intransitiveTo 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

3. transitiveTo 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 once

   1633, Joseph Hall, A paraphrase upon the hard texts of Scripture

   Synonyms: ransack, pillage, plunder, loot

4. transitiveTo 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, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]

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   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

5. transitiveTo 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

6. transitiveTo add a spiral groove to a gun bore to make a fired bullet spin in flight in order to improve range and accuracy.
7. transitiveTo cause (a projectile, as a rifle bullet) to travel in a flat ballistic trajectory.

   2011 Fighting for Gold: The Story of Canada's Sledge Hockey Paralympic Gold by Lorna Schultz Schultz Nicholson But a Norwegian player rifled off a point shot that sailed into the back of the net.

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   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

8. intransitiveTo 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

9. obsoletetransitiveTo 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. […], published 1818, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 68

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   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

10. intransitiveobsoleteTo engage in a raffle.

    We'll strike up a drum, set up a tent, call people together, put crowns apiece, let's rifle for her

    1596, George Chapman, The Blind Beggar of Alexandria