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Glite Dictionary
unrifled

unrifled

1 9.5
A gun barrel with no spiral cuts inside to make bullets spin
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈraɪfələd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : liso
  • The weapons used during the historical battle were all equipped with unrifled barrels, which limited their range.

Examples

  • An unrifled barrel made out of off-the-shelf seamless steel tubing, with a chamber cut by an off-the-shelf drill bit, is certainly feasible for basement or garage workshop builders.

    Blog text (4)

  • Because the shotgun has an unrifled barrel, it produces a wider spread of shot.

  • The antique musket featured an unrifled barrel, making it less effective than modern firearms.

Synonyms

smoothbore
vsunrifled
  • Specialized
1 9.5

A gun with a barrel that is smooth inside and has no spiral grooves

describes the same barrel condition but as an adjective rather than a noun

Antonyms

rifled
  • Specialized
7.8

A gun barrel with twisted grooves that make bullets spin and travel straighter

How Rifled

rifled
  • Specialized
7.8
unrifled
  • Specialized
1 9.5

Surface Forms

unrifled positive

Morphology

unrifled = rifled (transparent) = un + rifle + ed

The negative prefix 'un-' attaches to 'rifled' to give the straightforward meaning 'not having rifling'; this is a productive, predictable formation.

Etymology

Unrifled combines the prefix un- meaning 'not' with rifled, from rifle, a gun that has spiral grooves inside its barrel to make a bullet spin. So unrifled means 'not having those grooves', which is why an unrifled barrel does not give the same spin or accuracy as a rifled one.