carbine
[kahr-been, -bahyn]
- a light, gas-operated semiautomatic rifle.
- (formerly) a short rifle used in the cavalry.
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Origin of carbine
1595–1605; earlier carabine < Middle French: small harquebus, weapon borne by a carabin a lightly armed cavalryman, compared with (e)scarabin gravedigger for plague victims (< Provençal, akin to French escarbot cockchafer, dung beetle ≪ Latin scarabaeus scarab), though semantic change is unclear
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for carbine
Contemporary Examples
Will he get his carbine free before I reach him, or can I kill him first?
The Real Memorial Day: Oliver Wendell Holmes's Salute To A Momentous American AnniversaryMalcolm Jones
May 26, 2014
As you can see on your screens, this young soldier is trying to strangle me with the barrel of his carbine.
Washington pointed to Brown, who was kneeling beside him reloading his carbine, and said, “This is Osawatomie.”
Also, by carrying an M-4 carbine, everybody knew I was carrying something that could stitch even U.S. body armor.
Historical Examples
A chorus of night cries awoke to the sharp crack of a carbine.
The Law-BreakersRidgwell Cullum
At last, by a sudden jerk, he succeeded in wresting his carbine from him.
The Fortune of the RougonsEmile Zola
But even if you had missed I had him covered with my carbine.
The Night RidersRidgwell Cullum
As they approached the tan-vats he espied a carbine lying on the ground.
Three Years in the Federal CavalryWillard Glazier
Lately, too, we have gone through a course of carbine instruction.
The TraitorsE. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
carbine
- a light automatic or semiautomatic rifle of limited range
- Also called: carabin, carabine a light short-barrelled shoulder rifle formerly used by cavalry
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Word Origin
C17: from French carabine, from Old French carabin carabineer, perhaps variant of escarrabin one who prepares corpses for burial, from scarabée, from Latin scarabaeus scarab
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for carbine
n.
short rifle, 1580s, from French carabine (Middle French carabin), used of light horsemen and also of the weapon they carried, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Medieval Latin Calabrinus "Calabrian" (i.e., "rifle made in Calabria"). A less-likely theory (Gamillscheg, etc.) connects it to Old French escarrabin "corpse-bearer during the plague," literally (probably) "carrion beetle," said to have been an epithet for archers from Flanders.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper