Wiktionary

gun

See also: Gun, gùn, guṅ, gün, Gün, gǔn, and -gun

English edit

 
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Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English gunne, gonne, from Lady Gunilda, a huge crossbow with a powerful shot, with the second part of the term being of Old Norse origin. It was later used to denote firearms. The name Gunnhildr and its multiple variations are derived from Old Norse gunnr (“battle, war”) + hildr (“battle”), which makes it a pleonasm. In the given context the woman's name means battle maid. See also Hilda, Gunilda, Gunhild, Gunhilda, Gunnhildr.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

gun (plural guns)

  1. A device for projecting a hard object very forcefully; a firearm or cannon.
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
      They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect.
    • 2018 February 23, Richard Ayoade, The Last Leg, Season 14, Episode 5:
      Well, I've always been progun, you know that. It's... yeah, I think adding more guns into a situation is obviously the way to prevent shooting. I think in a way, if we take the guns away, the shootings may escalate. And I think that's why he's so firm on literally arming everyone. I think if you don't have a gun in your hands... well, let's not find out what that world would be.
    Guns were considered improvements of crossbows and catapults.
    Looking for wild meat to fill his family's freezer for the winter, the young man quietly raised up his gun at the approaching deer.
    1. A very portable, short firearm, for hand use, which fires bullets or projectiles, such as a handgun, revolver, pistol, or Derringer.
    2. A less portable, long firearm that fires bullets or projectiles; a rifle, either manual, automatic or semi-automatic; a flintlock, musket or shotgun.
    3. (military) A cannon with relatively long barrel, operating with relatively low angle of fire, and having a high muzzle velocity.[1]
    4. (military) A cannon with a 6-inch/155mm minimum nominal bore diameter and tube length 30 calibers or more. See also: howitzer; mortar.[1]
    5. (figurative) A firearm or cannon used for saluting or signalling.21-gun salute
      • 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01:
        It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. […]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.
  2. A device operated by a trigger and acting in a manner similar to a firearm.
    1. Any implement designed to fire a projectile from a tube.
      air-pressure pellet gun
      zipgun
      nail gun
    2. A device or tool that projects a substance.
      squirt gun
      spray gun
      grease gun
    3. A device or tool that applies something rather than projecting it.
      a rivet gun
      screw gun
      a price-label gun
  3. (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).
    • 2000, Drew Kampion, surfline.com
      by the winter of 1962, the Brewer Surfboards Hawaii gun was the most in-demand big-wave equipment on the North Shore.
  4. (cellular automata) A pattern that "fires" out other patterns.
    • 2000, Gary William Flake, The computational beauty of nature:
      The glider gun on the bottom of the NOT circuit emits a continuous stream of gliders, while the data stream source emits a glider only when there is a value of 1 in the stream […] .
    • 2007 February 23, Frank, “Life on the Edge”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎[1] (Usenet):
      It would be especially interesting if someone can find an "airplane gun", which generates airplanes at regular intervals.
    • 2010, Andrew Adamatzky, Game of Life Cellular Automata, page 74:
      Greene's period-416 2c/5 spaceship gun
  5. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (colloquial, metonymically) A person who carries or uses a rifle, shotgun or handgun.
    Some said that the cowboy was the fastest gun in the West.
    • 2019 October 31, A. A. Dowd, “Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro reunite for one last gripping crime epic, The Irishman”, in AV Club‎[2]:
      De Niro plays Frank Sheeran, the real-life South Philly truck driver who moonlighted, over the second half of the 20th century, as a hired gun for the mafia.
  6. (television) An electron gun.
    • 2012, Brand Fortner, Theodore E. Meyer, Number by Colors, page 202:
      The problem is figuring out how to get the electrons from the red gun to hit only the red phosphors, the electrons from the blue gun to hit only the blue phosphors, and so on.
  7. (colloquial, usually in the plural) The biceps.
  8. (nautical, in the plural) Violent blasts of wind.
  9. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (colloquial) An expert.
  10. (Australia, slang) Someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool.
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
  • Sranan Tongo: gon
Translations edit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb edit

gun (third-person singular simple present guns, present participle gunning, simple past and past participle gunned)

  1. (transitive) To cause to speed up.
    He gunned the engine.
  2. (informal) To offer vigorous support to (a person or cause).
    We're all gunning for you.
  3. (informal) (gunning for something or gunning to do something) make a great effort.
    • 2023, George Ramsay, Amy Woodyatt, “‘Like a chairlift up Everest’: Once running’s supreme challenge, has the value of a four-minute mile diminished?”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[3], CNN:
      Australian John Landy, one of Bannister’s rivals also gunning to break the four-minute barrier, took more than a second off the Briton’s time in Turku, Finland, a few weeks later.
  4. To seek to attack someone; to take aim at someone; used with for.
    He's been gunning for you ever since you embarrassed him at the party.
  5. To practice fowling or hunting small game; chiefly in participial form: to go gunning.
  6. (transitive, intransitive, US, prison slang, of a male prisoner) Synonym of gun down (“to masturbate while making sustained eye contact with someone — typically a female prison officer — as a form of intimidation”).
    • 2010, BNA's Employment Discrimination Report:
      […] all inmates participated in such conduct, and […] "the inmates gunned only female staff, not the all-male security staff," he said.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit

Etymology 2 edit

Related to ganef.

Noun edit

gun (plural guns)

  1. (obsolete, slang) A magsman or street thief.
    • 1863, Blanchard Jerrold, Signals of Distress in Refuges and Homes of Charity (etc.), page 2:
      To discover […] how the honest poor are compelled to hob-and-nob with the “shoful pitcher” and the “gun,” it is necessary to visit the vast nursery-grounds of crime.
References edit
  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Etymology 3 edit

From gunna, from gonna, from going to.

Verb edit

gun

  1. Nonstandard spelling of going to.
    I'm gun go get my coat from da closet.

References edit

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 JP 1-02. Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, 8 November 2010 (As Amended Through 15 March 2012), p.142. (Searchable online version)

Anagrams edit

Bissa edit

Noun edit

gun

  1. night

Cornish edit

Noun edit

gun f (plural gonyow)

  1. plain

Dongxiang edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Mongolic *gün, compare Mongolian гүн (gün).

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

gun

  1. deep

Dutch edit

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

gun

  1. inflection of gunnen:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. imperative

Japanese edit

Romanization edit

gun

  1. Rōmaji transcription of ぐん

Jingpho edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Burmese ကုန် (kun).

Noun edit

gun

  1. goods for sale

References edit

  • Kurabe, Keita (2016 December 31) “Phonology of Burmese loanwords in Jinghpaw”, in Kyoto University Linguistic Research‎[4], volume 35, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 91–128

Mandarin edit

Romanization edit

gun

  1. Nonstandard spelling of gǔn.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of gùn.

Usage notes edit

  • Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Manx edit

Noun edit

gun m (genitive singular gunney, plural gunnaghyn)

  1. Alternative form of gunn

Middle English edit

Noun edit

gun

  1. Alternative form of gunne

Northern Kurdish edit

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

gun m

  1. testicle, ball, bollock, egg, nut, orchis, testis

Scottish Gaelic edit

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): (before a broad consonant or a, o, u) /kən̪ˠ/, (before a slender consonant or e, i) /kəɲ/

Etymology 1 edit

From Old Irish co.

Alternative forms edit

Conjunction edit

gun

  1. that
    an t-amadan sin gun do thagh thu ― that fool that you voted for
    am fear gum pòs aig deireadh na mìosa ― the man that will marry at the end of the month
    an taigh gu bheil aice ― the house that she has

Etymology 2 edit

From Old Irish cen.

Preposition edit

gun (+ nominative, triggers lenition except before d, t, n or s)

  1. without
    gun teagamh ― without a doubt
    gun chàr ― without a car
  2. used to negate a verbal noun
    thuirt mi ris gun a dhol a-mach ― I told him not to go out
Synonyms edit

Etymology 3 edit

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Conjunction edit

gun (triggers lenition)

  1. neither...nor
    • 1911 (Birlinn Limited), Edward Dwelly: The Illustrated Gaelic-English Dictionary:
      Duine gun mhath gun chron, is motha a chron na a mhath. ― A man that's neither good nor ill is more ill than good.

Yoruba edit

Etymology 1 edit

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

gùn

  1. to be long (usually along a horizontal axis)
Usage notes edit
  • gun before a direct object
Derived terms edit

Etymology 2 edit

Possibly from Proto-Yoruboid *gwũ̀ (“to ascend”) or Proto-Yoruboid *gũ̀, cognate with Igala gwú (“to climb, to mate”)

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

gùn

  1. (intransitive) to climb, to ascend something
  2. to be climbed, to be mounted
  3. (intransitive, transitive) to ride or mount (someone or something)
    ó gun kẹ́tẹ́kẹ́tẹ́ ― She mounted a donkey
  4. (idiomatic, intransitive) to copulate, to mate
    Synonym: dó
  5. (idiomatic) to be possessed; (in particular) to be possessed by the spirit of an orisha
    ó ń hùwà bí ẹni tí Ṣàngó ń gùn ― He is behaving like someone that Sango is possessing
Usage notes edit
  • gun before a direct object
Derived terms edit

Etymology 3 edit

Possibly from Proto-Yoruboid *gwũ̀ (“to sweat”), cognate with Igala gwù (“to sweat”), see *(ò)úgwũ̀ (“sweat”), úgwù (“sweat”), and òógùn (“sweat, perspiration”)

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

gùn

  1. (intransitive) to sweat
    Synonym: làágùn
Derived terms edit

Etymology 4 edit

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

gun

  1. to be angular in shape, to form an angle
Derived terms edit

Etymology 5 edit

Cognates with Itsekiri gún

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

gún

  1. to pound
    Jùmọ̀kẹ́ ò kí ń gún iyán dáadáa, ẹ̀bà nìkan ló lè tẹ̀. ― Jumoke doesn't pound yam well, she can only make eba.
Derived terms edit

Etymology 6 edit

Alternative forms edit

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

gún

  1. to pierce; to jab; to penetrate; to stab
    Dókítà gún mi lábẹ́rẹ́. ― The doctor injected me with a needle.
    Igi gogoro máà gún mi lójú; àtòkèèrè la ti ń wò ó ― So that we may not be poked in the eye by the tall, pointed tree, one must watch it from afar.
Derived terms edit

Etymology 7 edit

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

gún

  1. to be straight; to straighten
  2. to be well arranged; to be in order
    Àárín tọkọtaya gún régé. ― There is peace between the couple. (literally, “Between the couple is in proper alignment.”)
  3. to shrug one's shoulders
    Mo gún èjìká. ― I shrugged my shoulders.

Etymology 8 edit

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

gún

  1. to curse
    Synonym: gégùn-ún
Derived terms edit
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