Gatling gun

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Gatling gun

A machine gun having a cluster of barrels that are fired in sequence as the cluster is rotated.

[After Richard Jordan Gatling.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Gatling gun

(ˈɡætlɪŋ)

(Firearms, Gunnery, Ordnance & Artillery) (sometimes not capital) a hand-cranked automatic machine gun equipped with a rotating cluster of barrels that are fired in succession using brass cartridges

[C19: named after R. J. Gatling (1818–1903), its US inventor]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Gat′ling gun`

(ˈgæt lɪŋ)
n.

an early type of machine gun consisting of a cluster of barrels around an axis that is rotated by a hand crank, with each barrel fired once during each rotation.

[1860–65, Amer.; after R. J. Gatling (1818–1903), U.S. inventor]

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Noun

Gatling gun - an early form of machine gun having several barrels that fire in sequence as they are rotated

machine gun - a rapidly firing automatic gun (often mounted)

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He might fairly have been compared, in action, to a rapid-firing Gatling gun; while Smith was a hundred-ton cannon, and Lockwood was the maker of the ammunition.

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My Twitter feed was a Gatling gun of moment-by-moment reports of her every word and action (I probably follow too many political reporters).

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The auction included a Colt Classic Remake 1877 Bulldog Gatling Gun Carriage Model, and a number of firearms and sporting accessories.