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machine gun |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.03 sec. |
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machine gun: see small arms small arms, firearms designed primarily to be carried and fired by one person and, generally, held in the hands, as distinguished from heavy arms, or artillery .
Early Small ArmsThe first small arms came into general use at the end of the 14th cent. ..... Click the link for more information. . machine gunAutomatic weapon capable of rapid, sustained fire, usually 500–1,000 rounds per minute. Developed in the late 19th century by such inventors as Hiram Maxim, it profoundly altered modern warfare. The World War I battlefield was dominated by the belt-fed machine gun, which remained little changed into World War II. Modern machine guns are classified into three groups: the squad automatic weapon, chambered for small-calibre assault-rifle ammunition and operated by one soldier; the general-purpose machine gun, firing full-power rifle ammunition and operated by two; and the heavy machine gun, firing rounds of 12.7 mm (.5 in) or higher and often mounted on an armoured vehicle. See also submachine gun. machine gun [mə′shēn ‚gən] (ordnance) A weapon that automatically fires small-arms ammunition, caliber .60 or 15.24 millimeters or under, and is capable of sustained rapid fire. To riddle a target with machine gun fire. How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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| On the [Canadian Corps] right Brutinel's Independent Force of motorized machine-gunners and cyclists had come roaring up the Roye road and taken up position to protect the right flank and help the French forward. Given the prevailing lack of discipline, it would have been impossible to use Congolese machine-gunners to defend the base from air attack: they did not know how to handle their weapons and did not want to learn," noted Guevara in a typical moment of condescension. Lechner, who calls himself an unapologetic TV fan, nonetheless in his book quotes Charles Sopkin, who performed a similar experiment 33 years earlier: ``The only way to solve television's problems was, literally (to) send in squads of machine-gunners and summarily execute every executive at every network and start over from scratch. |
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