machine gun
noun
a small arm operated by a mechanism, able to deliver a rapid and continuous fire of bullets as long as the trigger is pressed.
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machine gun
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machine-gun
machine-gunverb (used with object)to shoot at with a machine gun.
machine gun
1 Americannoun
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machine guns
plural
machine-gun
2
American
[muh-sheen-guhn]
/ məˈʃinˌgʌn /
verb (used with object)
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machine-guns,
present (3rd person singular)
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machine-gunned,
past participle, past
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machine-gunning
present participle
machine gun
British
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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machine-gunsimple
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machine-gunssimple
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have machine-gunnedperfect
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has machine-gunnedperfect
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am machine-gunningprogressive
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are machine-gunningprogressive
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is machine-gunningprogressive
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have been machine-gunningperfect progressive
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has been machine-gunningperfect progressive
Past
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machine-gunnedsimple
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had machine-gunnedperfect
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was machine-gunningprogressive
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were machine-gunningprogressive
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had been machine-gunningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of machine gun1
First recorded in 1865–70
Origin of machine-gun2
First recorded in 1880–85
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 was Sylvester Stallone in the 1986 action movie “Cobra,” toting a machine gun.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
The Taiwanese boats also have water cannon and a 20-millimetre static machine gun, but are careful to avoid a confrontation that "could lead to unimaginable consequences", Huang said.
From Barron's ● Nov. 11, 2025
A pistol, rifle and deactivated World War One machine gun were among the items lost or stolen from Ministry of Defence facilities over the past two years.
From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2024
He trained in San Diego — to fire a machine gun, position a gas mask, prove he could swim — and shipped out to Hawaii.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2024
The peanut bag was easy, once he got the rhythm he could stand under it all day, making it sound like a machine gun.
From "The Contender" by Robert Lipsyte
Led by Busby’s machine-gun mandolin riffs and hair-raising tenor, the band had a hard-edged bluegrass-style sound that was a far cry from the homogenized, syrupy country-and-western slop heard around town.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
A French machine-gun officer in the trenches during the First World War.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2026
It’s hard to get exact numbers on the revenue that has produced, but with numbers like that, Atlas has likely made millions off this machine-gun approach.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2025
Five states have no state-level machine-gun regulations at all.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2024
Here at the brickyard we were sheltered from rifle or machine-gun fire by the river bank.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
It is the same when Ronnie O’Sullivan machine-guns around a snooker table, or Roger Federer whips his wrist to slap a scudding cross-court winner.
From The Guardian ● May 2, 2017
His battalion's attack on the German trench had started well according to Stephen Erskin, curator of the Green Howard's Museum in Richmond, with more than 140 prisoners and two machine-guns captured.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2016
Kobani's defenders, outgunned by the militants, are hoping the arrival of peshmerga forces from Iraqi Kurdistan with badly-needed weapons including cannon and truck-mounted machine-guns will help them turn the tide.
From Reuters ● Oct. 31, 2014
If you have no heavy weaponry and face an enemy who has machine-guns, there are only three things you can do.
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2014
In order to keep the way open for their withdrawal, strong posts of Germans with machine-guns held out in a wedge just south of Rossignol Wood and in Biez Wood, which is west of Bucquoy.
From From Bapaume to Passchendaele, 1917 by Philip Gibbs
He scored twice at Newcastle, both close-range headers, the second of which involved hurling himself through the chest of a Newcastle defender like an action-movie stuntman being machine-gunned through a plate glass window.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 17, 2020
The orchestra does not stint on traditional fare: amid the splattering melons and machine-gunned music paper, it offered potent performances of Mahler’s Fifth and Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 6, 2018
Serena, in her final match, machine-gunned her onetime rival Sharapova off the court so brusquely and efficiently, it looked as if she had an urgent appointment somewhere that she couldn’t miss.
From New York Times ● Aug. 23, 2012
A decade ago, two of the most distinctive voices in TV belonged to writer-producers whose characters machine-gunned crisp dialogue at a blinding words-per-minute rate.
From Time ● Jun. 11, 2012
The Germans had not sniped or machine-gunned the stretcher-bearers, but had sent their own men out on the same mission too.
From From Bapaume to Passchendaele, 1917 by Philip Gibbs
Talk about using it as ammo, I’m machine-gunning love.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2021
They put three past Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and Joe Allen’s late equaliser against Arsenal on Wednesday had Klopp machine-gunning his fists in celebration.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 15, 2016
"I think," said Sophie, machine-gunning us through her fringe, "I have a bra named after me."
From The Guardian ● Mar. 24, 2010
On the Rhine frontier, the French tried some heavy machine-gunning across the river at Kehl.
From Time Magazine Archive
Instead of machine-gunning them, he brought his heel down hard on the ping-pong ball that came rolling toward him off the paddle of one of the two officers playing.
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.
