Browning machine gun
- noun
- /ˈbraʊnɪŋ məˈʃin ɡʌn/
- Archaic
:
ametralladora Browning
- In the thick of the battle, the crew expertly operated the Browning machine gun to provide suppressive fire.
Examples
-
The soldiers took cover behind a wall as the Browning machine gun fired across the battlefield.
-
Suddenly, two vehicles mounted with Browning machine guns passed the car.
Academic text (1996) -
Browning machine gun firing it in short bursts at targets Jack could not see.
Fiction book (1995) -
They had a top speed of 440 knots and were armed with four .50-caliber Browning machine guns.
Fiction book (2000) -
During World War II, the Browning machine gun became a vital weapon for American troops on the frontlines.
Synonyms
101
3.5
A large gun that fires many bullets very quickly, often used by soldiers
3
9.9
A belt-fed machine gun used by US soldiers in World War II and Korea that fires bullets very fast
1
4.9
An automatic gun that one soldier can carry and use
Surface Forms
Morphology
Knowing 'machine' and 'gun' gives a B1 learner the core meaning that this is a kind of machine gun, and 'Browning' functions as a proper name indicating the maker or model rather than changing the lexical meaning. Eponymous naming (name + object) is a transparent compositional pattern cross-linguistically, so while historical or technical details require extra knowledge, the basic sense is derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Browning machine gun is named after gun maker John Browning; he designed a gun that could fire many shots quickly, and armies used his machine gun on tanks and planes. So today Browning machine gun means that fast, reliable weapon he created.