Columbia Encyclopedia

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rifle

(Encyclopedia)rifle: see small arms.

small arms

(Encyclopedia)small arms, firearms designed primarily to be carried and fired by one person and, generally, held in the hands, as distinguished from heavy arms, or artillery. Automatic small arms were develope...

recoilless rifle

(Encyclopedia)recoilless rifle, light artillery piece, without recoil, usually operated by two men. An American invention, it was used as an infantry weapon for attacking fortifications such as pillboxes and bunker...

National Rifle Association of America

(Encyclopedia)National Rifle Association of America (NRA), group founded (1871) to promote shooting, hunting, firearm safety, and wildlife conservation. The NRA has more than 3 million members. The association spon...

small intestine

(Encyclopedia)small intestine: see intestine.

Small, Albion Woodbury

(Encyclopedia)Small, Albion Woodbury, 1854–1926, American sociologist, b. Buckfield, Maine, grad. Colby College, 1876, and further educated in Germany. He was made president of Colby in 1889, but left it in 1892 ...

Small Magellanic Cloud

(Encyclopedia)Small Magellanic Cloud: see Magellanic Clouds. ...

shooting

(Encyclopedia)shooting, firing with rifle, shotgun, pistol, or revolver at stationary or moving targets. The term shooting is also used in Great Britain to mean small-game hunting. In the 19th cent. the sport of ri...

Bavarian Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Bavarian Succession, War of the, between Austria and Prussia, 1778–79. With the extinction of the Bavarian line of the house of Wittelsbach on the death of Elector Maximilian Joseph in 1777, the duc...

Federation of the Emirates of the South

(Encyclopedia)Federation of the Emirates of the South: see South Arabia, Federation of. ...