• enPR: gŭn, IPA: /ɡʌn/

gun (plural guns)

1. A device#Noun|device for project#Verb|projecting a hard object very forcefully#Adverb|forcefully; a firearm#Noun|firearm or cannon#Noun|cannon.

   Guns were considered improvements of crossbows and catapults.

   Looking for wild meat to fill his family's freezer for the winter, the young man quietly raised up his gun at the approaching deer.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175 ↗:

     They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect.

   1. A very portable, short firearm, for hand use, which fires bullets or projectiles, such as a handgun, revolver, pistol or Derringer.
   2. A less portable, long firearm, bullet or projectile firing; a rifle, either manual, automatic or semi-automatic; a flintlock, musket or shotgun.
   3. (military) A cannon with relatively long barrel, operating with relatively low angle of fire, and having a high muzzle velocity.
   4. (military) A cannon with a 6-inch/155mm minimum nominal bore diameter and tube length 30 calibers or more. See also: howitzer; mortar.
   5. (figurative) A firearm or cannon used for saluting or signalling.^{21-gun-salute}
      • 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., OCLC 580270828 ↗, page 01 ↗:

        It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. […]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.

2. A device#Noun|device operated by a trigger#Noun|trigger and acting in a manner similar to a firearm.

   There are some guns that are not designed for killing.

   1. Any implement designed to fire a projectile from a tube.

      air-pressure pellet gun;  air rifle;  BB gun;  zipgun;  nail gun;  a potato gun

   2. A device or tool that projects a substance.

      a squirt gun;  a spray gun;  a grease gun

   3. A device or tool that apply#Verb|applies something rather than projecting it.

      a rivet gun;  a screw gun;  a price-label gun

3. (surfing) A long surfboard designed for surfing big waves (not the same as a longboard, a gun has a pointed nose and is generally a little narrower).
   • 2000, Drew Kampion, surfline.com ↗

     by the winter of 1962, the Brewer Surfboards Hawaii gun was the most in-demand big-wave equipment on the North Shore.

4. (cellular automata) A pattern that "fires" out other patterns.
   • 2010, Andrew Adamatzky, Game of Life Cellular Automata, p.74:

     Greene's period-416 2c/5 spaceship gun

5. (colloquial, metonym) A person who carries or uses a rifle, shotgun or handgun.
6. (colloquial, usually, in the plural) The biceps.
7. (nautical, in the plural) Violent blasts of wind.
8. (colloquial) An expert.

• French: pistolet
• German: Pistole
• Italian: pistola
• Portuguese: arma de fogo
• Russian: пистоле́т
• Spanish: pistola

• French: fusil
• German: Gewehr
• Italian: fucile
• Portuguese: fuzil, rifle
• Russian: ружьё
• Spanish: escopeta, rifle

• French: canon
• German: Geschütz, Kanone
• Italian: cannone
• Portuguese: canhão
• Russian: пу́шка
• Spanish: cañón

• German: Geschütz, Kanone
• Italian: obice
• Portuguese: obus
• Russian: пу́шка
• Spanish: obús

gun (guns, present participle gunning; past and past participle gunned)

1. (with “down”) To shoot someone or something, usually with a firearm.

   He gunned down the hitmen.

   The CEO gunned down that idea before we could present it to the board.

2. To speed something up.

   He gunned the engine.

3. To offer vigorous support to a person or cause.

   He’s gunning for you.

4. To seek to attack someone; to take aim at someone.

   He's been gunning for you ever since you embarrassed him at the party.

5. To practice fowling or hunting small game; chiefly in participial form: to go gunning.
6. (ambitransitive, prison slang) To masturbate while observing and visible to a corrections officer.
   • 2010, BNA's Employment Discrimination Report

     […] all inmates participated in such conduct, and […] "the inmates gunned only female staff, not the all-male security staff," he said.

• Portuguese: balear
• Russian: застрели́ть
• Spanish: disparar, balear

• Portuguese: acelerar
• Russian: приба́вить газу
• Spanish: disparar

1. Nonstandard spelling of going to.

   I'm gun go get da gun from da closet.