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belted ammunition

belted ammunition

8.0
Bullets linked in a flexible strip for use in a machine gun
  • noun
  • /ˈbɛltɪd ˌæmjʊˈnɪʃən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : munición con cinta
  • Belted ammunition is designed to feed smoothly into a machine gun for rapid firing.

Examples

  • The soldier loaded belted ammunition into the machine gun before heading into battle.

  • During the exercise, the troops practiced reloading belted ammunition quickly and efficiently.

  • Ordinarily, Clark carried the M-60 machine gun, which uses belted ammunition.

    Academic text (2013)

Synonyms

belt ammunition
vsbelted ammunition
  • Specialized
7.4

A linked strip of small bullets used in a machine gun

is the adjectival form with identical meaning written differently

Surface Forms

Morphology

belted + ammunition

The compound is largely compositional — 'belted' can be understood as 'on/attached to a belt' and 'ammunition' as bullets — so a learner could infer 'ammo carried or linked on a belt.' However, the sense of 'belt' as a linked feeding strip for machine guns is a specialized/military usage (distinct from the everyday clothing sense), so the exact technical meaning may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Belted ammunition comes from the image of bullets joined together on a flexible strip like a belt, with small metal links holding them so they can be fed into a machine gun. Because the bullets are literally 'belted' together to feed the weapon without stopping, the term means 'ammunition in a linked strip for a machine gun'.