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elephant gun

American  

noun

  1. a gun of very large caliber, as .410 or greater, used in killing elephants or other big game.


elephant gun British  

noun

  1. a gun used in the hunting of elephants

  2. slang a surfboard for riding large waves

"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

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:

For the most part, I see no point in training an elephant gun on small targets.

From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2020

The second night, Shrum predicted, someone would take out their elephant gun to try to blast front-runner and former vice president Joe Biden out of the lead.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 19, 2019

Whether or not Alphabet truly needs to pull out its proverbial elephant gun, there are still other parts of the Care.com deal that harken back to Buffett's deal-making philosophy.

From US News ● Jul. 7, 2016

Another example, perhaps, was this classic newspaper ad from his 2006 campaign, in which Raese posed with a ridiculous elephant gun.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2010

Huge black-powder cartridges with large leaden bullets; they would only fit an elephant gun; and yet this was the kind of weapon this doctor found necessary to bring to protect himself against British soldiers.

From Sketches of the East Africa Campaign by Robert Valentine Dolbey

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