rifle
/ˈɹaɪfəl/ verb C2- To quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing). · Near-synonym: riffle· She made a mess when she rifled through the stack of papers, looking for the title document.
- To commit robbery or theft.
- To search with intent to steal.
- To strip of goods; to rob; to pillage.
- To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.
- To add a spiral groove to a gun bore to make a fired bullet spin in flight in order to improve range and accuracy.
- To cause (a projectile, as a rifle bullet) to travel in a flat ballistic trajectory.
- To move in a flat ballistic trajectory (as a rifle bullet).
He/she/it rifles · Past rifled · Past participle rifled · -ing form rifling
Verb forms
- Base form
- rifle
- He/she/it
- rifles
- Past
- rifled
- Past participle
- rifled
- -ing form
- rifling
From the library
Is there a crime to be done, a paper to be abstracted, we will say, a house to be rifled, a man to be removed—the word is passed to the Professor, the matter is organized and carried out.
Have you not tethered a young kid under a tree, lain above it with your rifle, and waited for the bait to bring up your tiger?
The police theory is that a most sensational crime has been committed, that the victim was clubbed to death in his own bedroom, his papers rifled, and his dead body dragged across to the wood-stack, which was then ignited so as to hide all traces of the crime.
On the summit, hard and clear like an equestrian statue upon its pedestal, was a mounted soldier, dark and stern, his rifle poised ready over his forearm.
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