Gatling gun

English

Etymology

Named after American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling.

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɡætlɪŋ ˌɡʌn/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

Gatling gun (plural Gatling guns)

  2. A type of repeating firearm with several barrels on a rotating frame, in use from the 1860s to the 1910s, providing fully automatic fire similar to that of modern machine guns and autocannons.
    They say that the Gatling who invented Gatling guns imagined that they would reduce the scale of human warfare, poor old chap.
  4. (slang, loosely) Any of various later weapons with a similar concept of operation (spinning a rotating set of barrels).
    Near-synonyms: minigun, autocannon
    I stood in the door of an AC-130 and ran a Gatling gun. So it goes. What more is there to say about it?

Translations

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