Maxim gun

noun

an early single-barreled, water-cooled machine gun cocked by the force of its own recoil.

Origin of Maxim gun

First recorded in 1880–85; after H. S. Maxim

Example sentences from the Web for maxim gun

  • The gunboats fired in the two days' bombardment 650 shells and several thousand rounds of Maxim-gun ammunition.

    The River War |Winston S. Churchill

British Dictionary definitions for maxim gun

Maxim gun
/ (ˈmæksɪm) /

noun

an obsolete water-cooled machine gun having a single barrel and utilizing the recoil force of each shot to maintain automatic fire

Word Origin for Maxim gun

C19: named after Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840–1916), its US-born British inventor