What's the difference between riffle and rifle?

Riffle


Definition:

  • (n.) A trough or sluice having cleats, grooves, or steps across the bottom for holding quicksilver and catching particles of gold when auriferous earth is washed; also, one of the cleats, grooves, or steps in such a trough. Also called ripple.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I'd wake up to a compact mirror held to my mouth, and someone riffling through the knicker drawer for the will.
  • (2) Even as a child, Lauren, the third of four children, had a fascination with clothes and their ability to transform people: he emulated the preppy look of New York’s rich kids and would later riffle through thrift shops for authentically distressed denim, cowboy boots and leather jackets.
  • (3) "I hope there is no return to the spirit of loadsamoney heartlessness – figuratively riffling banknotes under the noses of the homeless – and I hope that this time the Gordon Gekkos of London are conspicuous not just for their greed – valid motivator though greed may be for economic progress – as for what they give and do for the rest of the population, many of whom have experienced real falls in their incomes over the last five years."
  • (4) Each stream was divided into pool and riffle sections that were colonized by communities of periphyton and invertebrates.
  • (5) The 488-m long stream was composed of mud-bottomed pools alternating with gravel riffles.
  • (6) Its use is demonstrated with a comparison of biomass and neuromass distributions for a stream riffle ecosystem in the Huron River, southeastern Michigan.
  • (7) The vaccine failed to protect against a highly virulent form of E coli 06 (Riffle), possibly because the amount of antibody to its lipopolysaccharide was inadequate.
  • (8) I searched for some explanation for this overweening neediness, riffling the pages with rising desperation.

Rifle


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To commit robbery.
  • (v. t.) To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.
  • (v. t.) To strip; to rob; to pillage.
  • (v. t.) To raffle.
  • (v. i.) To raffle.
  • (n.) A gun, the inside of whose barrel is grooved with spiral channels, thus giving the ball a rotary motion and insuring greater accuracy of fire. As a military firearm it has superseded the musket.
  • (n.) A body of soldiers armed with rifles.
  • (n.) A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.
  • (v. t.) To grove; to channel; especially, to groove internally with spiral channels; as, to rifle a gun barrel or a cannon.
  • (v. t.) To whet with a rifle. See Rifle, n., 3.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He's Billy no-mates with a Heckler & Koch sniper-rifle, drowning in loneliness, booze and depression.
  • (2) A tall young Border Police officer stopped me, his rifle cradled in his arms.
  • (3) Types of weapons involved included handguns (48%), shotguns (22%), rifles (17%), unspecified weapon (12%), and air rifle (1%).
  • (4) Snipers fired from rooftops, and plainclothes Saleh supporters armed with automatic rifles, swords and batons attacked the protesters.
  • (5) Sky News has apologised profusely after one of its presenters was shown rifling through the personal belongings of a stricken passenger at the MH17 crash site.
  • (6) Deaths due to air rifles are extremely rare; only four other cases were found in the recent English-language literature.
  • (7) 7.13pm BST The starting XIs England: Hart (Oxford University), Walker (Barnes), Cahill (Harrow Chequers), Jagielka (Cambridge University), Baines (1st Surrey Rifles), Wilshere (Old Harrovians), Gerrard (Wanderers), Walcott (Swifts), Cleverley (Old Carthusians), Welbeck (Royal Engineers), Rooney (Old Etonians).
  • (8) The drug was administered from a distance by means of a projectile syringe shot from a special rifle.
  • (9) We sampled a sawn-off shotgun and an assault rifle, but cops do get tasers and tear gas to add some urban flavour.
  • (10) Armed with an assault rifle, he then allegedly headed into two poor villages in Kandahar province, the Taliban's heartland, and went on a murderous rampage in which six people were also injured.
  • (11) District head Baba Abba Hassan said most victims are children, women and elderly people who could not run fast enough when insurgents drove into Baga, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles on town residents.
  • (12) Officers took up positions on rooftops and along railroad tracks and scanned the terrain through rifle scopes and binoculars.
  • (13) That proposal, similar to a Senate measure backed by the National Rifle Association, would let the attorney general delay a gun purchase by a suspected terrorist for three days, and let law enforcement officials ask a judge to block the purchase altogether.
  • (14) It can also be seen as a comment on the NSA debate, with Samantha gleefully rifling through Theodore's emails.
  • (15) Two men in a car tried to drive into the parking lot, jumped out with automatic rifles.
  • (16) A Royal Military police officer who was attached to the Rifles regiment, Pritchard had been put on duty at an observation post in the Sangin area of Helmand province, where the Taliban had fought hard for control.
  • (17) And with every heartbeat the blood was pumping up in the air from my thigh.” A man pointed a rifle at his head and threatened to finish him off.
  • (18) Via al-Aan correspondent Jenan Moussa: Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) I asked a rebel sniper in #Syria : Drop ur rifle for a day & document life through lens of a camera.
  • (19) Heller called Bundy’s militia supporters, many of whom had trained semi-automatic rifles on government rangers during the stand-off, “patriots”; now his spokesman is saying that the senator “completely disagrees with Mr Bundy’s appalling and racist statements”.
  • (20) ", but nothing helped, there was so much other noise – both the helicopter above us and the bastard's rifle.