submachine gun

[suhb-muh-sheen guhn]

noun

1. a lightweight automatic or semiautomatic gun, fired from the shoulder or hip. SMG

Word History and Origins

Origin of submachine gun¹

First recorded in 1915–20; sub- + machine gun

Example Sentences

They drilled through a newly plastered and redecorated area where they discovered three bags inside a tea-towel, with two containing a Skorpion submachine gun each and a pistol in the remaining package.

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He admitted he had told the FBI that Pratt had a submachine gun.

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A professor also showed BBC Panorama how he found someone within moments on Telegram who offered to ship an Uzi submachine gun to the UK for £850.

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Police said they were searching for the two attackers, who they said had exited the vehicle with a submachine gun and fled the scene.

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The UN fact finding mission said the authorities used shotguns, assault rifles and submachine guns against demonstrators, "thereby committing unlawful and extrajudicial killings."

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