small arm

noun

Usually small arms. a firearm designed to be held in one or both hands while being fired: in the U.S. the term is applied to weapons of a caliber of up to one inch (2.5 cm).

Origin of small arm

First recorded in 1680–90

OTHER WORDS FROM small arm

small-armed, adjective

Words nearby small arm

smackeroo, smackhead, smacking, small, small advertisement, small arm, small arms, small beer, small business administration, small calorie, small cane

Example sentences from the Web for small arm

The bore is made of any rifle calibre for any small-arm ammunition, and is fitted with a safety-lock.

The Romance of Modern Invention |Archibald Williams
The little three-pounders, as you know, have their venomous shell and charge together like small-arm ammunition.

A Fleet in Being |Rudyard Kipling
I was being bombarded incessantly, and since the morning had been severely harassed by small-arm fire.

Three Years' War |Christiaan Rudolf de Wet
From the hold came boxes of small-arm ammunition of Mausers, rifles, machetes, and saddles.

The Red Cross Girl |Richard Harding Davis

The small-arm of the infantry is the "3-line" rifle of the 1901 model.

Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights |Kelly Miller