Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Rifling"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
rifling
n : the cutting of spiral grooves on the inside of the barrel of
a firearm [syn: {grooving}]
Additional Hypertext Webster Gateway Lookup
Gateway by dict@stokkie.net
stock only wrote the gateway and does not have any control over the contents;
see the Webster Gateway FAQ,
and also the Back-end/database links and credits.