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To cover, fill, or affect with lead; as, continuous firing leads the grooves of a rifle.

A person devoted to the study of literary trifles, esp. trifles belonging to the literature of a former age. That class of subjects which are interesting to the regular literator or black-letter " bibliomane," simply because they have once been interesting. De Quincey.

lic about it, to be worn in a powder magazine. -- Magazine gun, a portable firearm, as a rifle, with a chamber carrying cartridges which are brought automatically into position for firing. -- Magazine stove, a stove having a chamber for holding fuel which is supplied to the fire by some self-feeding process, as in th…

shield of rope, wood, or metal, which is sometimes used for the protection of sappers or riflemen while attacking a fortress, or of gunners at embrasures; -- now commonly written mantlet.

A conical rifle bullet, with a cavity in its base plugged with a piece of iron, which, by the explosion of the charge, is driven farther in, expanding the sides to fit closely the grooves of the barrel.

A trifle; a trinket; a token. [Obs.] Spenser.

ussion lock) were successively substituted. This arm has been generally superseded by the rifle.

To fall into strifle; to quarrel. [Obs.] Shak.

Receiving its charge through the muzzle; as, a muzzle-loading rifle.

A trifle; a piece of foolery. [Obs.] Skinner.

A trifle. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To trifle with; to deceive; to mock. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

Trifles; things of no importance. Nonsense verses, lines made by taking any words which occur, but especially certain words which it is desired to recollect, and arranging them without reference to anything but the measure, so that the rhythm of the lines may aid in recalling the remembrance of the words.…

relevant and impertinent; something of comparative unimportance; utter insignificance; a trifle. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought. Is. xli. 24. 'T is nothing, says the fool; but, says the friend, This nothing, sir, will bring you to your end. Dryden.

Trifles; jests.

detached; fragmentary; hence, occasional; inconsiderable; as, odd jobs; odd minutes; odd trifles.

nted to be ordered deacons. Bk. of Com. Prayer. Order arms (Mil.), the command at which a rifle is brought to a position with its but resting on the ground; also, the position taken at such a command.

ir ordnance fire. Shak. Then you may hear afar off the awful roar of his [Rufus Choate's] rifled ordnance. E. Ererett. Ordnance survey, the official survey of Great Britain and Ireland, conducted by the ordnance department.

t in insincere or deceitful manner; to play false; to equivocate; to shift; to dodge; to trifle. Romans, that have spoke the word, And will not palter. Shak. Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, Nor paltered with eternal God for power. Tennyson.

A piece of greased cloth or leather used as wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore.