machine rifle
- noun
- /məˈʃin ˈraɪfəl/
- Specialized
:
fusil ametrallador
- During the demonstration, the machine rifle was shown to have a rapid rate of fire.
Examples
-
He fired the machine rifle from a stable position to improve accuracy.
-
The soldiers were trained to operate a machine rifle efficiently during combat.
-
It's a Colt monitor machine rifle.
-
And the Colt monitor machine rifle, one up top there with a custom pistol grip.
Synonyms
38
4.9
A gun that reloads and keeps firing while the trigger is held
36
4.8
A military gun that fires many bullets fast and holds them in a removable box
7
4.7
A rifle that shoots bullets without stopping as long as the trigger is held
1
7.3
A gun that keeps firing while the trigger is held
1
5.1
A gun that keeps loading and shooting as long as you hold the trigger
1
3.9
A weapon that reloads and keeps firing while you hold the trigger
How Automatic
- NSFW
101
3.5
- Specialized
- Specialized
1
7.2
- Specialized
21
9.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'machine' signals a mechanical/automatic device and 'rifle' names the firearm, so a learner who knows both words will reasonably infer a rifle that operates mechanically/automatically. This follows common noun+noun compounding patterns in English (cf. 'machine gun', 'automatic rifle') and similar formations exist cross-linguistically, making the meaning transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
Machine rifle may come from combining the word machine, meaning something that works automatically, and rifle, meaning a long gun. The image of a 'rifle' that works like a 'machine' explains why it means 'a gun that can fire many rounds automatically with one pull of the trigger'.