Definitions

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

  • noun A pistol.
  • noun A narrow passage extending inland from a shore; a channel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An opening or passage in a sand-bank; a way from the cliffs to the sea.
  • noun Nautical, a channel among shoals.
  • An old preterit of get.
  • noun An obsolete form of goat.

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

  • obsolete imp. of get.

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

  • noun archaic, slang, in old westerns A Gatling gun.
  • noun slang, 1920's gangster Any type of gun; usually in reference to a pistol.
  • verb slang To shoot someone with a pistol or other handheld firearm.
  • verb Scottish and Northern English Simple past of get.
  • noun New Zealand, slang A guitar

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

  • noun a gangster's pistol

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for Gat(ling gun).]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably Dutch, from Middle Dutch.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Gatling gun, after inventor Richard Gatling.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From guitar, by shortening

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Examples

Comments

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  • Tag in reverse.

    November 3, 2007

  • Also an archaic past form of go or get, apparently:

    "So Thorir gat him west to Dublin, and enquiring there for tidings of Oli learned that he was with his brother-in-law King Olaf Kvaran. Thereafter Thorir brought it to pass that he gat speech of Oli, and when they had talked often and long (for Thorir was a very smooth-tongued man) fell Oli to asking about the Upland kings: which of them were still alive and what dominions pertained to them."

    -- Sturluson, Snorri: The Sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and of Harald the Tyrant

    (Note: I think the link leads to the same translation I'm quoting from, but I could be wrong.)

    September 30, 2008

  • Archaic past tense of get, i.e. equivalent of got. I'm surprised an 1895 translation would use it; probably the translator is aiming for an antiquated feel.

    Makes me think of the Morte D'Arthur, e.g. "How gat ye this sword? said Sir Ector to Arthur." (I. v.)

    Still exists in begat, which you sometimes see as past of beget. In this sense I guess the King James Genesis gave it extra momentum with its famous "Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech..." etc.

    September 30, 2008

  • Thanks -- I was hoping someone smart would fill in my assumption! Much appreciated.

    October 1, 2008