Gun vs. Rifle — What's the Difference?

A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch typically solid projectiles, but can also project pressurized liquid (e.g. water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, projected water disruptors, and technically also flamethrowers), gas (e.g.

A rifle is a long-barrelled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with both hands and braced firmly against the shooter's shoulder via a buttstock for stability during shooting.

A portable firearm, such as a rifle or revolver.

A gun, especially one fired from shoulder level, having a long spirally grooved barrel intended to make a bullet spin and thereby have greater accuracy over a long distance

A cannon with a long barrel and a relatively low angle of fire.

Make spiral grooves in (a gun or its barrel or bore) to make a bullet spin and thereby have greater accuracy over a long distance

A device resembling a firearm or cannon, as in its ability to project something, such as grease or paint, under pressure or at great speed.

Hit or kick (a ball) hard and straight

A discharge of a firearm or cannon as a signal or salute

Search through something in a hurried way in order to find or steal something

One who is armed with or skilled in the use of a gun.

A firearm with a spirally grooved bore, designed to be fired from the shoulder.

The throttle of an engine, as of an automobile.

An artillery piece or naval gun with a spirally grooved bore.

Guns(Slang) The biceps muscles of the arms.

Rifles Troops armed with rifles.

To shoot (a person)

To cut spiral grooves within (a gun barrel, for example).

To open the throttle of (an engine) so as to accelerate

To search (an area or container, for example) thoroughly, especially using the hands with the intent to steal or remove something

To hunt with a gun.

To rob or search with the intent to rob

A device for projecting a hard object very forcefully; a firearm or cannon.

To steal (goods).

A very portable, short firearm, for hand use, which fires bullets or projectiles, such as a handgun, revolver, pistol, or Derringer.

To search vigorously

A less portable, long firearm that fires bullets or projectiles; a rifle, either manual, automatic or semi-automatic; a flintlock, musket or shotgun.

(weaponry) A firearm fired from the shoulder; improved range and accuracy is provided by a long, rifled barrel.

(military) A cannon with relatively long barrel, operating with relatively low angle of fire, and having a high muzzle velocity.

A rifleman.

(military) A cannon with a 6-inch/155mm minimum nominal bore diameter and tube length 30 calibers or more. See also: howitzer; mortar.

(weaponry) An artillery piece with a rifled barrel.

(figurative) A firearm or cannon used for saluting or signalling.^{21-gun salute}

A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.

A device operated by a trigger and acting in a manner similar to a firearm.

(intransitive) To quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing). (See also riffle^{[http://verbmall.blogspot.com/2008/05/riffle-or-rifle.html]})

Any implement designed to fire a projectile from a tube.

(intransitive) To commit robbery or theft.

A device or tool that projects a substance.

(transitive) To search with intent to steal; to ransack, pillage or plunder.

A device or tool that applies something rather than projecting it.

(transitive) To strip of goods; to rob; to pillage.

(surfing) A long surfboard designed for surfing big waves (not the same as a longboard, a gun has a pointed nose and is generally a little narrower).

(transitive) To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.

(cellular automata) A pattern that "fires" out other patterns.

(transitive) To add a spiral groove to a gun bore to make a fired bullet spin in flight in order to improve range and accuracy.

A person who carries or uses a rifle, shotgun or handgun.

(transitive) To cause (a projectile, as a rifle bullet) to travel in a flat ballistic trajectory.

(television) An electron gun.

(intransitive) To move in a flat ballistic trajectory (as a rifle bullet).

The biceps.

To dispose of in a raffle.

Violent blasts of wind.

To engage in a raffle.

An expert.

To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.

Someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool.

To strip; to rob; to pillage.

A magsman or street thief.

To raffle.

(transitive) To cause to speed up.

To raffle.

(informal) To offer vigorous support to (a person or cause).

To commit robbery.

(informal) (gunning for something or gunning to do something) make a great effort.

To grove; to channel; especially, to groove internally with spiral channels; as, to rifle a gun barrel or a cannon.

To seek to attack someone; to take aim at someone; used with for.

A gun, the inside of whose barrel is grooved with spiral channels, thus giving the ball a rotary motion and insuring greater accuracy of fire. As a military firearm it has superseded the musket.

To practice fowling or hunting small game; chiefly in participial form: to go gunning.

A body of soldiers armed with rifles.

To masturbate while observing and visible to a corrections officer.

A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.

Nonstandard spelling of going to

A shoulder firearm with a long barrel and a rifled bore;

A weapon which throws or propels a missile to a distance; any firearm or instrument for throwing projectiles, consisting of a tube or barrel closed at one end, in which the projectile is placed, with an explosive charge (such as guncotton or gunpowder) behind, which is ignited by various means. Pistols, rifles, carbines, muskets, and fowling pieces are smaller guns, for hand use, and are called small arms. Larger guns are called cannon, ordnance, fieldpieces, carronades, howitzers, etc. See these terms in the Vocabulary.

Steal goods; take as spoils;

A piece of heavy ordnance; in a restricted sense, a cannon.

Go through in search of something; search through someone's belongings in an unauthorized way;

Violent blasts of wind.

To practice fowling or hunting small game; - chiefly in participial form; as, to go gunning.

A weapon that discharges a missile at high velocity (especially from a metal tube or barrel)

Large but transportable armament

A person who shoots a gun (as regards their ability)

A professional killer who uses a gun

A hand-operated pump that resembles a gun; forces grease into parts of a machine

A pedal that controls the throttle valve;

The discharge of a gun as signal or as a salute in military ceremonies;

Shoot with a gun