Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A lightweight rifle with a short barrel.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A soldier armed with a carbine; a carbineer; a musketeer.
- n. In the sixteenth century, a firearm; one of the many names given to the lighter form of harquebuse.
- n. In modern times, a short rifle, especially one adapted to the use of mounted troops.
Wiktionary
- n. A smaller lighter version of an existing rifle with a shortened barrel.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A short, light musket or rifle, esp. one used by mounted soldiers or cavalry.
WordNet 3.0
- n. light automatic rifle
Etymologies
- French carabine, from Old French carabin, soldier armed with a musket, perhaps from escarrabin, gravedigger, from scarabee, dung beetle; see scarab.
Examples
“To answer your question, in my opinion, a carbine is generally not quite as accurate as a longer rifle but it is plenty accurate for deer hunting and often may offer the hunter better maneuverability and lighter weight to their advantage; especially in your case.”
“I will go with those who agree that the .30 M1 carbine is a fun plinker.”
“Lee Harvey Oswald was considered responsible for assassinating the president with a 6. 5mm Italian carbine from the Texas School Book Depository.”
“Dave, That little carbine is a handy little gun for it intended purpose.”
Imagine This: If old guns could talk, what stories would they tell us?
“And that carbine is probably still out there somewhere, its mysterious symbol forever unexplained.”
Imagine This: If old guns could talk, what stories would they tell us?
“The M4 carbine is likely an M4gery … in other words simply an AR-15 dressed up to look like an M4.”
EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Guy almost gets it while playing WoW
“Everybody had a good laugh and settled down, and I went hunting with my "real" T/C white mountain carbine the next morning.”
The Gun Nut Survey: A highly biased, unofficial poll of 2,000 readers on all things shooting
“Mounted above the carbine was the gadget Elizabeth had been holding in her lap the day Ilse and I had seen her.”
Duma Key
“This rifle right here, which is called a carbine, was stolen from the French museum of the army, been missing all these years.”
“The tape also shows an M-4 carbine, that is the type of weapon that U.S.”
chained_bear Usage/description on carabine. Compare carabineer. Oct 9, 2008