Enfield rifle
Americannoun
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a single-shot, muzzleloading rifle, of .577 caliber, used by the British army in the Crimean War and in limited numbers by both sides in the American Civil War.
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a bolt-action, breech-loading, .303-caliber magazine rifle introduced in Britain in 1902.
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an American .30-caliber rifle used in World War I by U.S. troops, patterned after the British Enfield rifle.
noun
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a breech-loading bolt-action magazine rifle, usually .303 calibre, used by the British army until World War II and by other countries
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a 19th-century muzzle-loading musket used by the British army
Etymology
Origin of Enfield rifle
Named after Enfield, England, where it was first made
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.
In 1942, months after Japan attacked the British territories of Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaya and Burma, 19-year-old Horace was in uniform, shipping out for Asia with an Enfield rifle.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2020
Almost every male over the age of 55 within the British Commonwealth is familiar with the Short Lee Enfield rifle, the standard infantry weapon for half a century or so.
From Golf Digest ● Mar. 24, 2020
The bullet in the leg of Burial 1 was fired from an imported British Enfield rifle musket then commonly used by Confederates, said Bies, now the superintendent of the Manassas National Battlefield Park.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 20, 2018
Apart from the annual camp, they did 40 drill nights a year, and each man had regular practice at marksmanship with his Lee Enfield rifle, known as the "Long Lee".
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2016
The English Enfield rifle was of .58 calibre, and the Springfield rifle, which soon came into common use, was of like calibre.
From Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 A Political History of Slavery in the United States Together With a Narrative of the Campaigns and Battles of the Civil War In Which the Author Took Part: 1861-1865 by Joseph Warren Keifer
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
