gun

Etymology 1

From Middle English gunne, gonne, from Lady Gunilda, a huge crossbow with a powerful shot, with the second part of the term being of Old Norse origin. It was later used to denote firearms. The name Gunnhildr and its multiple variations are derived from Old Norse gunnr (“battle, war”) + hildr (“battle”), which makes it a pleonasm. In the given context the woman's name means battle maid. See also Hilda, Gunilda, Gunhild, Gunhilda, Gunnhildr.

noun

1. A device for projecting a hard object very forcefully; a firearm or cannon.
   1. A very portable, short firearm, for hand use, which fires bullets or projectiles, such as a handgun, revolver, pistol, or Derringer.
   2. A less portable, long firearm that fires bullets or projectiles; a rifle, either manual, automatic or semi-automatic; a flintlock, musket or shotgun.
   3. (military) A cannon with relatively long barrel, operating with relatively low angle of fire, and having a high muzzle velocity.
   4. (military) A cannon with a 6-inch/155mm minimum nominal bore diameter and tube length 30 calibers or more. See also: howitzer; mortar.
   5. (figurative) A firearm or cannon used for saluting or signalling.^(21-gun salute)
2. A device operated by a trigger and acting in a manner similar to a firearm.
   1. Any implement designed to fire a projectile from a tube.
      air-pressure pellet gun
      zipgun
      nail gun
   2. A device or tool that projects a substance.
      squirt gun
      spray gun
      grease gun
   3. A device or tool that applies something rather than projecting it.
      a rivet gun
      screw gun
      a price-label gun
3. (surfing">surfing) A long surfboard designed for surfing">surfing big waves (not the same as a longboard, a gun has a pointed nose and is generally a little narrower).
   2000, Drew Kampion, surfline.com by the winter of 1962, the Brewer Surfboards Hawaii gun was the most in-demand big-wave equipment on the North Shore.
4. (cellular automata) A pattern that "fires" out other patterns.
   The glider gun on the bottom of the NOT circuit emits a continuous stream of gliders, while the data stream source emits a glider only when there is a value of 1 in the stream[…]. 2000, Gary William Flake, The computational beauty of nature
   It would be especially interesting if someone can find an "airplane gun", which generates airplanes at regular intervals. 2007-02-23, Frank, “Life on the Edge”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
   Greene's period-416 2c/5 spaceship gun 2010, Andrew Adamatzky, Game of Life Cellular Automata, page 74
5. (colloquial, metonymically) A person who carries or uses a rifle, shotgun or handgun.
   De Niro plays Frank Sheeran, the real-life South Philly truck driver who moonlighted, over the second half of the 20th century, as a hired gun for the mafia. October 31, 2019, A. A. Dowd, “Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro reunite for one last gripping crime epic, The Irishman”, in AV Club
6. (television) An electron gun.
   The problem is figuring out how to get the electrons from the red gun to hit only the red phosphors, the electrons from the blue gun to hit only the blue phosphors, and so on. 2012, Brand Fortner, Theodore E. Meyer, Number by Colors, page 202
7. (colloquial, usually in the plural) The biceps.
8. (nautical, in the plural) Violent blasts of wind.
9. (colloquial) An expert.
10. (Australia, slang) Someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool.

verb

1. (transitive) To cause to speed up.
   He gunned the engine.
2. (informal) To offer vigorous support to (a person or cause).
   We're all gunning for you.
3. (informal) (gunning for something or gunning to do something) make a great effort.
   Australian John Landy, one of Bannister’s rivals also gunning to break the four-minute barrier, took more than a second off the Briton’s time in Turku, Finland, a few weeks later. 2023, George Ramsay, Amy Woodyatt, “‘Like a chairlift up Everest’: Once running’s supreme challenge, has the value of a four-minute mile diminished?”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), CNN
4. To seek to attack someone; to take aim at someone; used with for.
   He's been gunning for you ever since you embarrassed him at the party.
5. To practice fowling or hunting small game; chiefly in participial form: to go gunning.
6. (transitive, intransitive, prison slang) To masturbate while observing and visible to a corrections officer.
   In the cell diagonally across from mine, a prisoner regularly “gunned down” the nurse on her morning rounds. He deliberately masturbated so that she'd see him through the cell door window as he ejaculated. 2004, Jens Soering, Yoga of Heart
   […] all inmates participated in such conduct, and […] "the inmates gunned only female staff, not the all-male security staff," he said. 2010, BNA's Employment Discrimination Report

Etymology 2

Related to ganef.

noun

1. (obsolete, slang) A magsman or street thief.
   To discover […] how the honest poor are compelled to hob-and-nob with the “shoful pitcher” and the “gun,” it is necessary to visit the vast nursery-grounds of crime. 1863, Blanchard Jerrold, Signals of Distress in Refuges and Homes of Charity (etc.), page 2

Etymology 3

From gunna, from gonna, from going to.

verb

1. Nonstandard spelling of going to.
   I'm gun go get my coat from da closet.