as in shotgun
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as in to search
to look through (as a place) carefully or thoroughly in an effort to find or discover something
rifled the desk drawer in search of the insurance policy
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rifle
Jane Arraf, NPR, 9 Apr. 2025
Routh allegedly hid in bushes with a rifle at Trump’s golf course with the intent to kill the then-former president on Sept. 15, 2024.
—Ross O'Keefe, The Washington Examiner, 8 Apr. 2025
Brendan Marks, The Athletic, 15 Mar. 2025
Following their early-season struggles, Los Angeles rifled off nine wins to make the postseason.
—Tommy Tuberville, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rifle
Noun
The 35-year-old said his movement had men in 100 villages, armed with rifles, machine guns, rockets and mortars, but declined to give the number of fighters.
—Jane Arraf, NPR, 9 Apr. 2025
Routh allegedly hid in bushes with a rifle at Trump’s golf course with the intent to kill the then-former president on Sept. 15, 2024.
—Ross O'Keefe, The Washington Examiner, 8 Apr. 2025
Verb
The Tar Heels rifled an inbounds pass down the right side of the court to Seth Trimble, who called timeout with 2.5 seconds left to set up UNC’s pivotal final attempt.
—Brendan Marks, The Athletic, 15 Mar. 2025
Following their early-season struggles, Los Angeles rifled off nine wins to make the postseason.
—Tommy Tuberville, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rifle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rifle
Noun
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Ferguson was arrested that same night, and police later recovered 48 weapons — including rifles, shotguns, and handguns, and over 26,000 rounds of ammunition — from his home, according to prosecutors.—
Thao Nguyen,
USA Today,
23 Apr. 2025
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An opening montage of video clips ends with an iconic two-shot from the film of their characters, Pedro (Marin) behind the wheel and Man (Chong) riding shotgun, disappearing into a screen full of smoke.—
Adam Tschorn,
Los Angeles Times,
23 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Elsewhere, investigators searched the house, the barn and even the pond.—
Susan Mallie,
CBS News,
26 Apr. 2025
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Investigators are searching for the suspect, described as a man in his 20s or 30s wearing all black and black headphones.—
Thomas G. Moukawsher,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Apr. 2025
Noun
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The gear is museum-worthy – muskets longer than men are tall, coats ranging from rich brocade to dun homespun.—
Melanie Stetson Freeman,
Christian Science Monitor,
17 Apr. 2025
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The men, who’d assembled on the moors hours earlier, were armed with muskets, sticks, hatchets, and heavy blacksmith’s hammers.—
John Cassidy,
New Yorker,
14 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Nader has dismissed her insight completely, triggering a grimy investigation montage of exercise, combing through files, thinking while brooding in the company of coffee, cigarettes, and an old car door propped up on a chain-link fence for target practice.—
Andy Andersen,
Vulture,
18 Apr. 2025
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Even the best recruiters can only comb through so many resumes before their vision begins to blur, upping the risk of missing out on the ideal hire.—
Aytekin Tank,
Forbes.com,
17 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Beretta traces its history to 1526, when Bartolomeo Beretta (d. 1565), a rifle barrel maker in the small northern Italian town of Gardone, sold 185 arquebus barrels—a handheld long gun and a forerunner to the modern rifle—to the Republic of Venice.—
Giacomo Tognini,
Forbes,
25 Mar. 2025
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The worshipers insisted on congregating to pray at the crucifix in the local church and threatened to shoot with an arquebus – a long gun used during the Renaissance period – anyone who got in their way.—
Hannah Marcus,
The Conversation,
25 Sep. 2020
Verb
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The Annie set has 12 chairs, each designed to look like something that could literally rake through a head of hair.—
Nora Taylor,
Curbed,
23 Apr. 2025
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The cemetery was only sporadically maintained by its caretaker, and raking the long grass gave me the eerie feeling of running my fingers through a child’s hair.—
Hazlitt,
Hazlitt,
2 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Although a gunshot from a flintlock pistol lasts only an eye blink, the sound is composed of numerous elements: the squeeze of the trigger, the strike of the firing mechanism against the flint, the ignition of the powder, the slug’s passage through the barrel, the report, the impact.—
Alexis Soloski,
New York Times,
3 Jan. 2025
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My first rifle had been a flintlock that had been given to me by an old friend, Ed Wesson, the gunsmith.—
Outdoor Life,
Outdoor Life,
23 Nov. 2023
Noun
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First-generation matchlock rifles, tanks, and aircraft had major limitations but improved over time.—
Paul Scharre,
Foreign Affairs,
15 Feb. 2018
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Guns are a part of American life, and have been since the very beginning, from the matchlock muskets arming the earliest colonies to the Colt revolvers and Winchester rifles of the Old West to the Glock handgun of today.—
Kyle Mizokami,
Popular Mechanics,
7 Mar. 2018
Cite this Entry
“Rifle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rifle. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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