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Glite Dictionary
gas gun

gas gun

1 6.5
A device that fires small gas containers like tear gas to make crowds move away
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : pistola de gas
  • The police used a gas gun to disperse the unruly crowd at the protest.
  • a light-gas gun
  • a two-stage light-gas gun

Examples

  • A two-stage light-gas gun (G-range) is used to launch 63.5-millimeter-diameter projectiles at velocities up to 6 km/s.

    Academic text (1995)

  • It's a gas gun.

    The Green Hornet (2011)

  • Who ordered the tear-gas gun?

    Cry Baby Killer (1958)

  • A gas gun?

    The Green Hornet (2011)

  • Furious, Kellaway yanks open the door of an abandoned squad car, pulls out a tear gas gun, and fires into the air.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Hydraulic two-stage light-gas gun.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The HPG could also be used as a highly efficient pump stage in a two-stage light-gas gun for launching hypervelocity projectiles, as shown in Figure 7.

    Academic text (1995)

  • During the demonstration, the officers deployed a gas gun that released tear gas.

  • He carried a gas gun to ensure that any violent outbreaks could be controlled safely.

Synonyms

gun
vsgas gun
∞ 1.0

A weapon that fires bullets or shells at high speed

is a specialized weapon firing gas shells for crowd control rather than general use
riot gun
vsgas gun
  • Specialized
1 7.2

A gun used to break up crowds that fires rubber bullets or tear gas

is limited to shells that release gas rather than other non-lethal munitions

Surface Forms

gas gun singular
gas guns plural

Morphology

gas + gun

The meaning 'a gun that fires gas' is directly and compositionally derivable from combining 'gas' and 'gun' — the noun–noun compound straightforwardly denotes a gun associated with gas. This follows common compounding patterns and is conceptually transparent across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the intended meaning.

Etymology

The compound noun gas gun comes from the simple picture of a gun that fires gas. Imagine a launcher that shoots a cloud to make people or animals leave; that's why the term means a weapon used to release gas for crowd control or 'non-lethal' use.