Quick-fire

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Rapid-fire \Rap"id-fire`\, Rapid-firing \Rap"id-fir`ing\, a.
     (a) (Gun.) Firing shots in rapid succession.
     (b) (Ordnance) Capable of being fired rapidly; -- applied to
         single-barreled guns of greater caliber than small arms,
         mounted so as to be quickly trained and elevated, with a
         quick-acting breech mechanism operated by a single motion


         of a crank or lever (abbr. R. F.); specif.: (1) In the
         United States navy, designating such a gun using fixed
         ammunition or metallic cartridge cases; -- distinguished
         from breech-loading (abbr. B. L.), applied to all guns
         loading with the charge in bags, and formerly from
         quick-fire. Rapid-fire guns in the navy also sometimes
         include automatic or semiautomatic rapid-fire guns; the
         former being automatic guns of not less than one inch
         caliber, firing a shell of not less than one pound
         weight, the explosion of each cartridge operating the
         mechanism for ejecting the empty shell, loading, and
         firing the next shot, the latter being guns that require
         one operation of the hand at each discharge, to load the
         gun. (2) In the United States army, designating such a
         gun, whether using fixed or separate ammunition, designed
         chiefly for use in coast batteries against torpedo
         vessels and the lightly armored batteries or other war
         vessels and for the protection of defensive mine fields;
         -- not distinguished from quick-fire. (3) In Great
         Britain and Europe used, rarely, as synonymous with
         {quick-fire}.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl.]