carbine

[ kahr-been, -bahyn ]

/ ˈkɑr bin, -baɪn /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR carbine ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a light, gas-operated semiautomatic rifle.

(formerly) a short rifle used in the cavalry.

RELATED WORDS

rifle, weapon, firearm, fusil

Nearby words

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

Examples from the Web for 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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST

But all they had to depend upon now was the Major's carbine.
In Search of the Castaways|Jules Verne
He stepped back from the ledge, clambered down the stairs, and seized a carbine and ammunition.
With Wellington in Spain|F. S. Brereton
The girl held his carbine as he stumbled over the rocky bottom.
The Mad King|Edgar Rice Burroughs
The sentinel moved outside the door, and the butt end of his carbine scratched against the lintel.
The Gadfly|E. L. Voynich
He was familiar with the carbine from the service, I believe.
Warren Commission (10 of 26): Hearings Vol. X (of 15)|The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy

British Dictionary definitions for carbine

carbine

/ (ˈkɑːbaɪn) /

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

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.