Bren
/brɛn
/(also Bren gun)
noun
A lightweight quick-firing machine gun used by the Allied forces in the Second World War.After a noisy afternoon with a Bren firing 12 inches from my left ear, I was deafened....
- It takes me back to the cadets, assembling or dissembling the Bren gun: piston, barrel, butt, body, bipod.
- As he paused beside a large rock to reload his Bren gun, he was shot dead by a sniper.
Origin
1930s: blend of Brno (a town in the Czech Republic where it was originally made) and Enfield in England (site of the Royal Small Arms Factory where it was later made).
Rhymes
- phono
- phono-
- phonoautograph
- phonocardiogram
- phonocardiograph
- phonocardiographer
- phonocardiographic
- phonocardiographical
- phonocardiographically
- phonocardiography
- phonocentric
- phonocentricity
- phonocentrism
- phonodisc
- phonoelectrocardioscope
- phonofiddle
- phonofilm
- phonogenic
- phonogram
- phonogramic
- phonogrammatic
- phonogrammic
- phonograph
- phonographed
- phonographer