cap gun
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of cap gun
An Americanism dating back to 1930–35
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The move follows similar laws introduced in Western Australia earlier this year to cap gun ownership.
From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2025
But it was his other early work, studying the spectroscopic fingerprint of hydrogen, that would prove crucial a decade later, when he discovered an object that made a supernova look like a child’s cap gun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2022
“I had one of these—the Hubley Atomic Disintegrator—as a kid. It’s a cap gun absolutely redolent of sci-fi romanticism!”
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 9, 2019
Gabriel, 25, was more than 100 yards away from the officers and had a toy cap gun.
From Slate ● Oct. 25, 2019
She likes you, boy, and if you can’t tell that, you aren’t going to be able to tell a rifle from a cap gun in this war.
From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
