pistol

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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.

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

shoot (someone) with a pistol.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

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.

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.

• Guns and Firearms - pistol: small handheld firearm; handgun

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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