Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A weapon, especially a pistol or rifle, capable of firing a projectile and using an explosive charge as a propellant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A weapon from which a missile, such as a bullet, cannon-ball, shell, etc., is expelled by the combustion of gunpowder or other similar explosive. Pistols, muskets, cannon, etc., are firearms.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A gun, pistol, or any weapon from which a shot is discharged by the force of an explosive substance, as gunpowder.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A personal weapon that uses explosive powder to propel a metal (usually lead) projectile.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a portable gun

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

fire +‎ arm.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "On average, guns kill or wound 276 people every day in America. Of those shot, about 75 adults and nine children die. That adds up to just over 100,000 victims of gun violence a year. The rate of firearm murders in the United States is about 16 times that in Australia and 26 times that in Britain."

    - Bernard Lagan, America's gun outrage: 276 people killed or wounded a day, theage.com.au, 9 Nov 2009.

    November 10, 2009

  • Yes, but guns make us safer.

    November 10, 2009