gun-playn.
Originally U.S.
The use of firearms; a shooting affray; skill in shooting.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > action of propelling missile > discharge of firearms > [noun]
gunning1570
fire1590
firing1684
squibbing1697
gunfire1801
gunnery1816
pop-off1843
pluffing1852
machine-gun fire1882
gun-play1897
loosing off1906
society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > action of propelling missile > discharge of firearms > [noun] > skill in
marksmanship1803
gun-play1897
gunmanship1925
1897 Typogr. Jrnl. Jan. The talk of ‘gun-plays’ at the Federation Convention..is without a germ of truth.
1899 G. Ade Doc' Horne vi. 57 So you made good with the gun~play did you.
1904 N.Y. Evening Post 7 Nov. 1 The feud has been the cause of several assaults and gunplays in Chinatown.
1913 C. E. Mulford Coming of Cassidy ii. 30 I've heard so much about Bradley's gun-play that I'm some curious.
1928 Sunday Disp. 22 July 9/3 Other charges of gunplay were made against the officer.
1956 Times Lit. Suppl. 9 Nov. Years of disorder and lightly controlled gun-play.
1958 Listener 9 Oct. 553/1 Perhaps gunplay and fisticuffs are as formal a part of the ‘western’ as blood and bodies are of the detective novel.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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n.1897