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Glite Dictionary
ack-ack gun

ack-ack gun

9.9
A large gun on the ground that shoots at enemy planes
  • noun
  • /ˈækˌæk ɡʌn/
  • Archaic
translation icon : cañón antiaéreo
  • The soldiers manned the ack-ack gun to defend against enemy aircraft overhead.

Examples

  • What, because he went in without orders and pranged some ack-ack guns?

    The Purple Plain (1954)

  • During the battle, the sound of the ack-ack gun could be heard as it fired at approaching planes.

  • You firing the ack-ack gun?

    Big Momma's House 2 (2006)

  • The ground crew was trained to operate the ack-ack gun effectively during air raids.

Synonyms

antiaircraft gun
vsack-ack gun
  • Specialized
1 5.3

A large gun on the ground that shoots at planes

is broader, including artillery pieces aimed at enemy aircraft
pom-pom
vsack-ack gun
  • Archaic
9.9

A small fast-firing gun on ships used to shoot at aircraft

is the general ground weapon class, not limited to rapid automatic types

How Powerful

ack-ack gun
  • Archaic
9.9
machine gun
  • NSFW
101 3.5

Surface Forms

ack-ack gun singular
ack-ack guns plural

Morphology

ack-ack + gun

The compound simply combines 'ack-ack' (artillery fire aimed at aircraft) with 'gun', yielding a gun used for ack-ack/anti-aircraft purposes. This follows a regular English pattern (X + gun = a gun for X) and is directly derivable from the constituents, so a B1 learner who knows both parts would understand the meaning.

Etymology

Ack-ack gun comes from soldiers saying ack-ack for the letters 'A A' in old military talk. That was short for 'anti-aircraft', so an ack-ack gun is a ground gun used to shoot at enemy planes.