Guns
1.A weapon consisting of a metal tube from which a projectile is fired at highvelocity into a relatively flat trajectory.2.A cannon with a long barrel and a relatively low angle of fire.3.A portable firearm, such as a rifle or revolver.4.A device resembling a firearm or cannon, as in its ability to project something,such as grease, under pressure or at great speed.5.A discharge of a firearm or cannon as a signal or salute.6.One, such as a hunter, who carries or uses a gun.7.a.A person skilled in the use of a gun. b.A professional killer:
a hired gun.
8.The throttle of an engine, as of an automobile.Weapon consisting essentially of a metal tube from which a missile or projectile is shot by the force of explodinggunpowder or some other propellant. The term is often limitedtoday to the so-called big guns,cannonlarger than a howitzer or mortar . It may also be
used to refer to military small arms such as therifle, machine gun, and pistol, as well as
to nonmilitary firearms such as theshotgun. Though the Chinese used gunpowder inwarfare from the 9th century, guns were not developed until the Europeans acquiredgunpowder in the 13th century. The earliest guns (
c.
1327) resembled old-fashioned soda bottles; they apparently were fired by applying a red-hot wire to a touchhole drilledthrough the top. Separating the barrel and the powder chamber resulted in breechloaders,which continued to be used in naval swivel guns and fortress wallpieces well into the17th century. Small arms, as distinguished from hand cannon, did not exist until thedevelopment of thematchlock in the 15th century.
See also
is amachineor tool,usually aweapon, that propels projectilessuch as bullets. The projectile
is generally fired through a hollow tube known as the gun's barrel. The barrel's diameter,determines the size of projectile used, which is usually designated in fractions of aninch or inmillimeters. Differing from themusket, most modern guns arerifled, with a series
of grooves spiraling along the barrel; exceptions includesmoothboresontanks,AFVs
and someartillery. ck. The use of the term cannon is interchangeable with the gun as aword borrowed from the French language during the early 15th century, from Old French
canon
, itself a borrowing from the Italian
cannone
, a "large tube" augmentive of Latin
canna
"reed or cane".
In military use, the term "gun" refers toartilleryordnance that fires projectiles at highvelocity, such asnaval gunswhich in the modern navies are not calledcannons, or the
tank main gun. In military use,mortarsand all hand-held firearms are excluded from the
meaning of guns because they do not require the accurate gunnery data calculations andtraining when engaging targets.
Two exceptions to this include: theshotgun, which is a
smoothborehand-held firearm that fires a load of shotor a single projectile known as a
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