• IPA: /ˈɹaɪfəl/

rifle (plural rifles)

1. (weaponry) A shouldered firearm with a long, rifled barrel to improve range and accuracy.
2. (military, usually plural, dated) A rifleman.
3. (weaponry) An artillery piece with a rifled barrel.
4. A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.

• French: fusil
• German: Gewehr, Karabiner
• Italian: fucile
• Portuguese: fuzil, espingarda, rifle, refle
• Russian: ружьё
• Spanish: fusil, rifle

rifle (rifles, present participle rifling; past and past participle rifled)

1. (intransitive) To quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing). (See also riffle)

   She made a mess when she rifled through the stack of papers, looking for the title document.

2. (intransitive) To commit robbery or theft.
3. (transitive) To search with intent to steal; to ransack, pillage or plunder.
4. (transitive) To strip of goods; to rob; to pillage.
   • c. 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The VVinters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene v]:

     Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye: / If not, we'll make you sit and rifle you.

5. (transitive) To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.
   • 1715, Homer; [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book I”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume I, London: Printed by W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott between the Temple-Gates, OCLC 670734254 ↗:

     Time shall rifle every youthful grace.

6. (transitive) To add a spiral groove to a gun bore to make a fired bullet spin in flight in order to improve range and accuracy.
7. (transitive) To cause (a projectile, as a rifle bullet) to travel in a flat ballistic trajectory.
   • 2011 Fighting for Gold: The Story of Canada's Sledge Hockey Paralympic Gold by Lorna Schultz Schultz Nicholson

     But a Norwegian player rifled off a point shot that sailed into the back of the net.

8. (intransitive) To move in a flat ballistic trajectory (as a rifle bullet).
   • 2014: Lights of Summer: The Run for Glory by Alexander Rebelle

     The ball rifled off the bat.

9. (obsolete, transitive) To dispose of in a raffle.
10. (obsolete, intransitive) To engage in a raffle.