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pistol

 
(pĭs'təl) pronunciation
n.
A firearm designed to be held and fired with one hand.

tr.v., -toled, -tol·ing, -tols.
To shoot with such a handgun.

[French pistole, from German, from Middle High German pischulle, from Czech píšt'ala, pipe, whistle, firearm, from pištěti, to whistle, of imitative origin.]


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Parts of a semiautomatic pistol.
(click to enlarge)
Parts of a semiautomatic pistol. (credit: © Merriam-Webster Inc.)
Small firearm designed to be operated with one hand. The name may derive from the city of Pistoia, Italy, where handguns were made as early as the 15th century. It was originally a cavalry weapon. However, because the firepower of pistols must be kept low in order to reduce them to manageable weight, and because only skilled soldiers can shoot them accurately beyond 10 yards, they have never been satisfactory military weapons. In legal use, pistols are most frequently carried by police and other security personnel and serve mainly as a defensive weapon of last resort. Their compact size, low cost, and ease of operation make them a common weapon in violent crime, so that pistols are a common object of laws regulating the ownership of firearms. The two classes of pistol are revolvers and automatics. Automatics have a mechanism, actuated by the energy of recoil, that feeds cartridges from a magazine in the grip.

For more information on pistol, visit Britannica.com.

[IBM] A tool that makes it all too easy for you to shoot yourself in the foot. “Unix rm * makes such a nice pistol!


n. a small firearm designed to be held in one hand.

v. pistoled, pistoling dated

shoot (someone) with a pistol.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

n. a person who is bright, quick, or energetic. (Implying hot as a pistol or quick as a pistol.)  Ask that pistol to step over here for a minute, would you?

To take aim with a pistol may indicate the dreamer is trying to target a specific goal. Alternatively, if feelings of anger or helplessness and fear play a part in the dream, then the dreamer's sense of self-defense is at stake and the pistol may represent the power the dreamer needs to defend against some anger or aggression in waking life.


noun
noun, US

Someone remarkable, esp. for reliability or strength of character; a 'brick'. (1935 —) .
J. Phillips What a pistol she was—still working at the dress shop then, hard as nails and took no truck from anyone (1984).



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A weapon for delivery of a missile; usually a weapon to fire a bullet, used in euthanasia.

  • balling p. — a device shaped like a pistol but loaded with a medicinal bolus which is fired into the pharynx of a horse by the operation of a spring loaded piston.
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categories related to 'pistol'

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For a list of words related to pistol, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Pistol.
Translations:

Pistol

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - pistol
v. tr. - skyde med pistol

Nederlands (Dutch)
pistool

Français (French)
n. - pistolet
v. tr. - tirer au pistolet

Deutsch (German)
n. - Pistole
v. - mit der Pistole (er)schießen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πιστόλι
v. - πυροβολώ με πιστόλι

Italiano (Italian)
pistola, prendere a pistolettate

Português (Portuguese)
n. - pistola (f)
v. - atirar com pistola

Русский (Russian)
пистолет, стрелять из пистолета, бить пистолетом

Español (Spanish)
n. - pistola
v. tr. - herir o matar con pistola

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - pistol
v. - skjuta med pistol

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
手枪, 信号枪, 用手枪射击

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 手槍, 信號槍
v. tr. - 用手槍射擊

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 피스톨
v. tr. - 피스톨[권총]로 쏘다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 拳銃, ピストル
v. - ピストルで撃つ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مسدس, (فعل) يطلق نار المسدس,‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אקדח‬
v. tr. - ‮ירה באקדח‬


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Copyrights:

American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
The Jargon File's Guide to Hacker Slang. The Jargon File. Copyright © 2007.  Read more
Oxford Dictionary of the US Military. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
McGraw-Hill Slang Dictionary. McGraw-Hill's Essential American Slang Dictionary. Copyright © 2007 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
The Dream Encyclopedia. The Dreams Encyclopedia. 1995 ©Visible Ink Press (VisibleInkPress.com). All rights reserved.  Read more
 Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang. Oxford University Press. © 1997, 2008, 2010 All rights reserved.  Read more
Saunders Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
Random House Word Menu. © 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier. Write Brothers Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
 Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved.  Read more
Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary. Collins Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary © Anne Bradford, 1986, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008 HarperCollins Publishers All rights reserved.  Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

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