Bren gun

American

[bren] / brɛn /

Or bren gun

noun

a .303-caliber, gas-operated, air-cooled, clip-fed submachine gun.

Bren gun British

/ brɛn /

noun

an air-cooled gas-operated light machine gun taking .303 calibre ammunition: used by British and Commonwealth forces in World War II

"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

Etymology

Origin of Bren gun

1935–40; Br(no) , Moravia + En ( field ), England, towns of manufacture

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.

See Examples For:

Bren gun

So if you can't oblige us with a Bren gun The Home Guard might as well go home.

From Time Magazine Archive

Czechoslovakia, whose famed Bren gun as well as the Skoda Works' howitzers made the country second only to Britain as a weapons merchant in the 1930s, has dropped from the big leagues.

From Time Magazine Archive

I went with a captain called Peter in his Bren gun carrier.

From Time Magazine Archive

At midnight armored cars, Bren gun carriers, lorries packed with troops rolled out from the suburban barracks and into Khartoum and its sister cities of Omdurman and Khartoum North.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mr. Downing shot out orders, threats, and penalties with the rapidity of a Bren gun.

From Mike and Psmith by Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023