different between delve vs rifle

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?lv/
• Rhymes: -?lv

Etymology 1

From Middle English delven, from Old English delfan (“to dig, dig out, burrow, bury”), from Proto-Germanic *delban? (“to dig”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?elb?- (“to dig”). Cognate with West Frisian dolle (“to dig, delve”), Dutch delven (“to dig, delve”), Low German dölven (“to dig, delve”), dialectal German delben, telben (“to dig, delve”).

Verb

delve (third-person singular simple present delves, present participle delving, simple past delved or (obsolete) dolve, past participle delved or (archaic) dolven)

1. (intransitive) To dig the ground, especially with a shovel.

   • Delve of convenient depth your thrashing floor.

   • I got a spade from the tool-house, and began to delve with all my might - it scraped the coffin; I fell to work with my hands; the wood commenced cracking about the screws; I was on the point of attaining my object, when it seemed that I heard a sigh from some one above, close at the edge of the grave, and bending down.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To search thoroughly and carefully for information, research, dig into, penetrate, fathom, trace out
   • 1609-11, Shakespeare, Cymbeline, King of Britain

     I cannot delve him to the root.

   • 1943, Emile C. Tepperman, Calling Justice, Inc.!

     She was intensely eager to delve into the mystery of Mr. Joplin and his brief case.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To dig, to excavate.
   • ca. 1260, Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend

     And then they made an oratory behind the altar, and would have dolven for to have laid the body in that oratory ...

   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, chapter IV

     Let him take off his plates and delve himself, if delving must be done.

Synonyms

• (to dig the ground): dig
• (to search thoroughly): investigate, research

Derived terms

• delver
• indelve
• undelve

Related terms

• dolven

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English delve, delf, dælf, from Old English delf, ?edelf (“digging”) and dælf (“that which is dug out, delf, ditch”). More at delf.

Noun

delve (plural delves)

1. (now rare) A pit or den.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.iii:

     the wise Merlin whylome wont (they say) / To make his wonne, low vnderneath the ground, / In a deepe delue, farre from the vew of day [...].

   • 1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage 2015, p. 75:

     I put the clods on top the delve and gave it all a good thumping down with my feet.

Related terms

• stonedelf

Anagrams

• devel

Dutch

Verb

delve

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of delven

Anagrams

• velde

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English delfan.

Verb

delve

1. Alternative form of delven

Etymology 2

From Old English delf.

Noun

delve

1. Alternative form of delf

English

Etymology

Originally short for “rifled gun”, referring to the spiral grooves inside the barrel. From Middle English, from Old French rifler (“to scrape off, plunder”), from Old Dutch *riffil?n (compare archaic Dutch rijfelen (“to scrape”), Old English geriflian (“to wrinkle”)), frequentative of Proto-Germanic *r?fan? (compare Old Norse rífa (“to tear, break”)). More at rive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??a?f?l/

Noun

rifle (plural rifles)

1. (weaponry) A shouldered firearm with a long, rifled barrel to improve range and accuracy.
2. (military, usually in the plural, dated) A rifleman.
3. (weaponry) An artillery piece with a rifled barrel.
4. A strip of wood covered with emery or a similar material, used for sharpening scythes.

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Verb

rifle (third-person singular simple present rifles, present participle rifling, simple past and past participle rifled)

1. (intransitive) To quickly search through many items (such as papers, the contents of a drawer, a pile of clothing). (See also riffle^[2])

2. (intransitive) To commit robbery or theft.
3. (transitive) To search with intent to steal; to ransack, pillage or plunder.
   • Template:RQ:Joseph Hall Paraphrases

     thine enemies […] shall ransack and rifle all the things of Edom; and shall search out all thy hidden commodities, and carry them away at once

4. (transitive) To strip of goods; to rob; to pillage.
5. (transitive) To seize and bear away by force; to snatch away; to carry off.
6. (transitive) To add a spiral groove to a gun bore to make a fired bullet spin in flight in order to improve range and accuracy.
7. (transitive) To cause (a projectile, as a rifle bullet) to travel in a flat ballistic trajectory.
   • 2011 Fighting for Gold: The Story of Canada's Sledge Hockey Paralympic Gold by Lorna Schultz Schultz Nicholson

     But a Norwegian player rifled off a point shot that sailed into the back of the net.

8. (intransitive) To move in a flat ballistic trajectory (as a rifle bullet).
   • 2014: Lights of Summer: The Run for Glory by Alexander Rebelle

     The ball rifled off the bat.

9. (obsolete, transitive) To dispose of in a raffle.
   • 1605, John Webster, Northward Ho

     If you like not that course but intend to be rid of her , rifle her at a tavern , where you may swallow down some fifty wiseacres ' sons and heirs to old tenements and common gardens , like so many raw yolks with muscadine to bedward Kate.

10. (obsolete, intransitive) To engage in a raffle.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Translations

References

• rifle at OneLook Dictionary Search
• rifle in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Filer, Friel, filer, flier, lifer

Catalan

Etymology

From English rifle.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /?ri.fl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /?ri.fle/

Noun

rifle m (plural rifles)

1. rifle

Further reading

• “rifle” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “rifle” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “rifle” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “rifle” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ifl/

Etymology 1

From American English rifle (19th century).

Noun

rifle m (plural rifles)

1. rifle (carabine)

Related terms

• .22 Long Rifle

Etymology 2

Verb

rifle

1. first-person singular present indicative of rifler
2. third-person singular present indicative of rifler
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of rifler
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of rifler
5. second-person singular imperative of rifler

Further reading

• “rifle” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• filer

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Apparently from Middle Low German or Low German riffel, but compare Danish riffel.

Noun

rifle f or m (definite singular rifla or riflen, indefinite plural rifler, definite plural riflene)

1. (firearm) a rifle

Derived terms

• jaktrifle

References

• “rifle” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

As above.

Noun

rifle f (definite singular rifla, indefinite plural rifler, definite plural riflene)

1. (firearm) a rifle

Derived terms

• jaktrifle

References

• “rifle” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• refle

Etymology

From English rifle, from Middle English, from Old French rifler (“to scrape off, plunder”), from Old Low Franconian Old Dutch *rifillon, frequentative of Proto-Germanic *r?fan?.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /??i.fli/
• (South Brazil) IPA^(key): /?hi.fle/

Noun

rifle m (plural rifles)

1. rifle

   Synonyms: escopeta, espingarda, fuzil, refle

Further reading

• “rifle” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English rifle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?rifle/, [?rif.le]

Noun

rifle m (plural rifles)

1. rifle

   Synonym: fusil

Further reading

• “rifle” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.