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noun Gun n. 1.A weapon which throws or propels a missile to a distance; any firearm or instrument for throwing projectiles, consisting of a tube or barrel closed at one end, in which the projectile is placed, with an explosive charge (such as guncotton or gunpowder) behind, which is ignited by various means. Pistols, rifles, carbines, muskets, and fowling pieces are smaller guns, for hand use, and are called small arms. Larger guns are called cannon, ordnance, fieldpieces, carronades, howitzers, etc. See these terms in the Vocabulary. "As swift as a pellet out of a gunne When fire is in the powder runne." "The word gun was in use in England for an engine to cast a thing from a man long before there was any gunpowder found out." 2.(Mil.) A piece of heavy ordnance; in a restricted sense, a cannon. 3.pl. (Naut.) Violent blasts of wind. Note: Guns are classified, according to their construction or manner of loading as rifled or smoothbore, breech-loading or muzzle-loading, cast or built-up guns; or according to their use, as field, mountain, prairie, seacoast, and siege guns. Armstrong gun, a wrought iron breech-loading cannon named after its English inventor, Sir William Armstrong. Big gun or Great gun, a piece of heavy ordnance; hence (Fig.), a person superior in any way; as, bring in the big guns to tackle the problem. Gun barrel, the barrel or tube of a gun. Gun carriage, the carriage on which a gun is mounted or moved. Gun cotton (Chem.), a general name for a series of explosive nitric ethers of cellulose, obtained by steeping cotton in nitric and sulphuric acids. Although there are formed substances containing nitric acid radicals, yet the results exactly resemble ordinary cotton in appearance. It burns without ash, with explosion if confined, but quietly and harmlessly if free and open, and in small quantity. Specifically, the lower nitrates of cellulose which are insoluble in ether and alcohol in distinction from the highest (pyroxylin) which is soluble. See Pyroxylin, and cf. Xyloidin. The gun cottons are used for blasting and somewhat in gunnery: for making celluloid when compounded with camphor; and the soluble variety (pyroxylin) for making collodion. See Celluloid, and Collodion. Gun cotton is frequenty but improperly called nitrocellulose. It is not a nitro compound, but an ester of nitric acid. Gun deck. See under Deck. Gun fire, the time at which the morning or the evening gun is fired. Gun metal, a bronze, ordinarily composed of nine parts of copper and one of tin, used for cannon, etc. The name is also given to certain strong mixtures of cast iron. Gun port (Naut.), an opening in a ship through which a cannon's muzzle is run out for firing. Gun tackle (Naut.), the blocks and pulleys affixed to the side of a ship, by which a gun carriage is run to and from the gun port. Gun tackle purchase (Naut.), a tackle composed of two single blocks and a fall. Krupp gun, a wrought steel breech-loading cannon, named after its German inventor, Herr Krupp. Machine gun, a breech-loading gun or a group of such guns, mounted on a carriage or other holder, and having a reservoir containing cartridges which are loaded into the gun or guns and fired in rapid succession. In earlier models, such as the Gatling gun, the cartridges were loaded by machinery operated by turning a crank. In modern versions the loading of cartidges is accomplished by levers operated by the recoil of the explosion driving the bullet, or by the pressure of gas within the barrel. Several hundred shots can be fired in a minute by such weapons, with accurate aim. The Gatling gun, Gardner gun, Hotchkiss gun, and Nordenfelt gun, named for their inventors, and the French mitrailleuse, are machine guns. To blow great guns (Naut.), to blow a gale. See Gun, n., 3.
Machine n. 1.In general, any combination of bodies so connected that their relative motions are constrained, and by means of which force and motion may be transmitted and modified, as a screw and its nut, or a lever arranged to turn about a fulcrum or a pulley about its pivot, etc.; especially, a construction, more or less complex, consisting of a combination of moving parts, or simple mechanical elements, as wheels, levers, cams, etc., with their supports and connecting framework, calculated to constitute a prime mover, or to receive force and motion from a prime mover or from another machine, and transmit, modify, and apply them to the production of some desired mechanical effect or work, as weaving by a loom, or the excitation of electricity by an electrical machine. Note: The term machine is most commonly applied to such pieces of mechanism as are used in the industrial arts, for mechanically shaping, dressing, and combining materials for various purposes, as in the manufacture of cloth, etc. Where the effect is chemical, or other than mechanical, the contrivance is usually denominated an apparatus or device, not a machine; as, a bleaching apparatus. Many large, powerful, or specially important pieces of mechanism are called engines; as, a steam engine, fire engine, graduating engine, etc. Although there is no well-settled distinction between the terms engine and machine among practical men, there is a tendency to restrict the application of the former to contrivances in which the operating part is not distinct from the motor. 2.Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle. 3.A person who acts mechanically or at the will of another. 4.A combination of persons acting together for a common purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social machine. "The whole machine of government ought not to bear upon the people with a weight so heavy and oppressive." 5.A political organization arranged and controlled by one or more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends; the Tammany machine. (Political Cant) 6.Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being introduced to perform some exploit. Elementary machine, a name sometimes given to one of the simple mechanical powers. See under Mechanical. Infernal machine. See under Infernal. Machine gun.See under Gun. Machine screw, a screw or bolt adapted for screwing into metal, in distinction from one which is designed especially to be screwed into wood. Machine shop, a workshop where machines are made, or where metal is shaped by cutting, filing, turning, etc. Machine tool, a machine for cutting or shaping wood, metal, etc., by means of a tool; especially, a machine, as a lathe, planer, drilling machine, etc., designed for a more or less general use in a machine shop, in distinction from a machine for producing a special article as in manufacturing. Machine twist, silken thread especially adapted for use in a sewing machine. Machine work, work done by a machine, in contradistinction to that done by hand labor.
machine gun n. A fully automatic rapid-firing rifle, which continues to fire bullets repeatedly as long as the trigger is depressed; lighter versions may be carried in the hands, and heavier versions may be mounted on a tripod, vehicle, or other mount. The lighweight versions are sometimes called a submachine gun.
adjective machine gun, machine-gun adj. Occurring in rapid succession, like the firing of a machine gun; as, Tom was a persuasive speaker, with a smooth deep voice, polysyllabic vocabulary, and a machine-gun articulation that overwhelmed listeners. Synonyms: rapid-fire.
Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48
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