a shoulder firearm with a long barrel and a rifled bore
"he lifted the rifle to his shoulder and fired"
A shouldered firearm with a long, rifled barrel to improve range and accuracy.
"The hunter carefully cleaned his rifle before heading out into the forest at dawn."
In plain English: A rifle is a long gun with a barrel that has grooves inside to make bullets spin and fly straighter when fired from its shoulder stock.
"The soldier kept his rifle in case the enemy attacked again."
Usage: As a noun, "rifle" refers specifically to a type of shoulder-fired gun designed for greater accuracy over distance. Do not confuse this meaning with the verb form, which describes searching through items quickly or flipping pages rapidly.
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]))
"She rifled through his messy desk looking for the missing passport."
In plain English: To rifle means to search through something quickly and roughly, often by shaking it up while looking for what you want inside.
"She rifled through her bag looking for her keys."
The word "rifle" originally referred to the spiral grooves inside a gun barrel. It comes from Middle English terms meaning "to rob or search through," which were borrowed from Old French and ultimately derived from an ancient Germanic root related to scratching or tearing.