gunner
Americannoun
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a person who operates a gun or cannon.
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Army. an occupational title in the artillery.
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Navy. a person skilled in handling ammunition and gunnery equipment.
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Marine Corps. a warrant officer who may be given any one of a number of assignments.
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British.
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Military. a private in the artillery.
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Informal. any officer or enlisted person assigned to the artillery.
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a person who hunts with a gun.
noun
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a serviceman who works with, uses, or specializes in guns
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navy (formerly) a warrant officer responsible for the training of gun crews, their performance in action, and accounting for ammunition
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gnr. (in the British Army) an artilleryman, esp a private
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a person who hunts with a rifle or shotgun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gunner
Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at gun 1, -er 1
Vocabulary lists containing gunner
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:
He served as a rifleman, mortarman and machine gunner and his most recent appointment was as a Section Second in Command within the Assault Pioneer Platoon.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
Dougie Shelley joined the Royal Navy at the age of 17, serving as a seaman gunner, and said earlier this year: "There is not many of us left."
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2025
Although more accustomed to playing out wide as a gunner, he didn’t blink at lining up at a position more often occupied by bigger linebackers, or sometimes even linemen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2024
Eighth Air Force and served as a radio gunner on a B-17, the massive bomber known as the Flying Fortress.
From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
As a big man, therefore a machine gunner, Henry Dobbins carried the M-60, which weighed 23 pounds unloaded, but which was almost always loaded.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
At Gold Beach in Arromanches, Normandy, Major Trevor Macey-Lillie, piper with the Scottish gunners, enacted a time-honoured tradition of playing a Scottish lament on the bagpipes.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2024
The Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride requires riders taking up different roles, with two gunners, engineers and a pair of pilots.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2024
Some Ukrainian gunners have told reporters they were only allowed to fire three shells per night.
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2024
The Steelers twice failed to pin the Bengals deep in their own end in the first half when the gunners couldn’t down the ball before it reached the end zone.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 27, 2023
When Yossarian plugged his headset into one of the auxiliary jackboxes, the two gunners in the rear section of the plane were both singing “La Cucaracha.”
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
