Meaning & use
Smoothbore
Last updated
Having a smooth, unrifled interior barrel, used to describe firearms or cannons that lack spiral grooves to spin the projectile.
See it in a sentence
Early muskets were smoothbore weapons, which made them far less accurate than rifled guns.
Most modern tanks still use a smoothbore main gun to fire high-velocity rounds.
A note on using this word
Shotguns remain smoothbore because their spreading shot doesn't benefit from rifling the way a single bullet does.
Words with an opposite meaning
rifled
Another way to use it
2. noun
A firearm or gun with an unrifled barrel.
The museum displayed an antique smoothbore from the Napoleonic era.
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