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Synonyms

Tommy gun

American  

noun

  1. Thompson submachine gun.

  2. any submachine gun.

Tommy gun British  

noun

  1. an informal name for Thompson sub-machine-gun

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Tommy gun

First recorded in 1920–25; by shortening

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.

There’s no Tommy gun showdown with the killer in this story, no chase through tunnels or urban alleys and no triumphant clacking of handcuffs on the wrists of a guilty maniac.

From New York Times • Sep. 6, 2022

Being self-schooled in deception, I claimed it was a bandolier of bullets for my plastic Tommy gun.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2021

Among the firearms he owns are several fully automatic weapons, including a Thompson submachine gun, or Tommy gun, and a Model 50 Reising submachine gun.

From The Guardian • Sep. 20, 2016

Although some of the guns were returned to the places where they had been stolen, the Tommy gun from Peru never made it home, according Herigstad’s research.

From Washington Times • Mar. 25, 2016

That poster on the wall of Winston Churchill, clenching a cigar, clutching a Tommy gun?

From Washington Post

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.