submachine gun
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of submachine gun
First recorded in 1915–20; sub- + machine gun
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.
Thompson, who takes his stage name from his wartime submachine gun, rose to fame during the bloody conflicts that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s.
From Barron's • Dec. 1, 2025
He fought in three of its five major battles, as well as in many lesser engagements, armed with a Thompson submachine gun.
From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2024
It features a solemn colonnade along with a column atop which a Soviet soldier stands cradling a submachine gun — a structure known to generations of Viennese as the “Monument to the Unknown Looter.”
From Washington Post • Feb. 6, 2023
In a recent seminar at Rutgers, he referred to the disease as “MPX,” an alternative he called “absolutely not ideal” after learning that MPX was the name for a type of submachine gun.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 26, 2022
From the roof of The Cage, Ferguson, drafted as a guard for this emergency, waved and lovingly patted the butt of his submachine gun.
From Take the Reason Prisoner by McGuire, John Joseph
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.
