carbine

Etymology

Ca. 1600, from French carabine. Doublet of carabine.

noun

1. A rifle with a short barrel.
   The lock-up was upstairs, a cage surrounded by six-inch wooden bars, guarded by a constable armed with a carbine. 1934, George Orwell, chapter 6, in Burmese Days
   Inside the wall they found "a small cannon aimed at the entrance of the gate, and all along the street soldiers were stationed and a few on horseback were riding up and down. One of these had his carbine strapped on his back, and swung under his arm was a three-foot beheading sword wrapped in red cloth. That section had been terrorized by robbers, and they were prepared." December 2010, John Pollock, A Foreign Devil in China, World Wide Publications, page 45