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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in shotgun
Related Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of rifle
Kansas City Star, 14 July 2025
Then on September 15, 2024, as Trump was golfing in West Palm Beach, Florida, a Secret Service agent, authorities said, saw Routh's rifle protruding through the golf course fence and opened fire.
—Peter Aitken
hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 July 2025
Josh Gross, Oc Register, 2 Apr. 2025
Bassett could have done the same a minute later, but rifled a tough-angled shot at RSL goalkeeper Rafael Cabral.
—Braidon Nourse, Denver Post, 17 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for rifle
Verb
Miller was allegedly holding an AK-47 style rifle with one magazine loaded with eight rounds.
—Kansas City Star, 14 July 2025
Then on September 15, 2024, as Trump was golfing in West Palm Beach, Florida, a Secret Service agent, authorities said, saw Routh's rifle protruding through the golf course fence and opened fire.
—Peter Aitken
hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 July 2025
Noun
Heavy pressure allowed the Ducks to keep the puck in the offensive zone at the end of the period, where Radko Gudas rifled a pair of slapshots in quick succession.
—Josh Gross, Oc Register, 2 Apr. 2025
Bassett could have done the same a minute later, but rifled a tough-angled shot at RSL goalkeeper Rafael Cabral.
—Braidon Nourse, Denver Post, 17 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for rifle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rifle
Verb
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But cosmologists have actually been searching for holes in the standard model—holes that might lead to a more complete understanding of spacetime, because the standard model has limitations.—
Sarah Scoles,
JSTOR Daily,
31 July 2025
-
Police are searching for a suspect believed to have killed four family members in rural Tennessee and then abandoned a 7-month-old baby girl in a front yard 25 miles away this week.—
Nicole Acosta,
People.com,
31 July 2025
Noun
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And this slasher Santa Claus doesn't mess around, using an axe and a shotgun with deadly intention and also down for impaling people on deer antlers.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
26 July 2025
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Before his arrest, Vang’s son went to the home and secured a shotgun and two rifles.—
Nick Ferraro,
Twin Cities,
22 July 2025
Verb
-
No Mongolian goats had ever had their bellies combed in its creation.—
Inga,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
21 July 2025
-
Lutnick was carrying around a physical prototype of the Trump Card, and combing through the sign-up list to see who was interested.—
Antonia Hitchens,
New Yorker,
21 July 2025
Noun
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On April 19, 1775, the crack of a musket marked the first official command for colonists to fire upon the red-coated army of Britain’s King George III.—
Lisa Meyers McClintick,
USA Today,
21 June 2025
-
Depictions of Warren tend to show him in military uniform, with a sword or a musket.—
Eliza McGraw,
Smithsonian Magazine,
17 June 2025
Verb
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The researchers also found burrows dug by some of the animals, as well as scrapes on rocks where the mollusks had raked their teeth to gather up algae or bacteria for food.—
Sara Hashemi,
Smithsonian Magazine,
29 July 2025
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The Royals made news in Chicago on Wednesday morning, calling up a familiar face who’s been raking at Triple-A Omaha.—
Pete Grathoff,
Kansas City Star,
23 July 2025
Noun
-
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
Noun
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The flintlock pistol that Torres is given by the Yautja to fight his fellow prisoners is known by Predator fans as the Raphael Adolini 1715 pistol for an engraved plate that says just that.—
Louis Peitzman,
Vulture,
13 June 2025
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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
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 6 Aug. 2025.
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