carbine

[kahr-been, -bahyn]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR carbine ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a light, gas-operated semiautomatic rifle.

(formerly) a short rifle used in the cavalry.

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. 2019

Related Words for carbine

rifle, weapon, firearm, fusil

Examples from the Web for carbine

Contemporary Examples of carbine

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 Anniversary
Malcolm 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.
This 1979 Novel Predicted Putin’s Invasion Of Crimea
Michael Weiss
May 18, 2014
Washington pointed to Brown, who was kneeling beside him reloading his carbine, and said, “This is Osawatomie.”
When Robert E. Lee Met John Brown and Saved the Union
Michael Korda
May 15, 2014
Also, by carrying an M-4 carbine, everybody knew I was carrying something that could stitch even U.S. body armor.
Don’t Arm America: A Soldier’s Reply to Connecticut Shooting
Tony Schwalm
December 18, 2012

Historical Examples of carbine

A chorus of night cries awoke to the sharp crack of a carbine.
The Law-Breakers
Ridgwell Cullum
At last, by a sudden jerk, he succeeded in wresting his carbine from him.
The Fortune of the Rougons
Emile Zola
But even if you had missed I had him covered with my carbine.
The Night Riders
Ridgwell Cullum
As they approached the tan-vats he espied a carbine lying on the ground.
Three Years in the Federal Cavalry
Willard Glazier
Lately, too, we have gone through a course of carbine instruction.
The Traitors
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim

British Dictionary definitions for carbine

carbine

noun

a light automatic or semiautomatic rifle of limited range

Also called: carabin, carabine a light short-barrelled shoulder rifle formerly used by cavalry

Word Origin for carbine

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for carbine

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.