carbine

noun

car·​bine ˈkär-ˌbēn 

-ˌbīn

1

: a short-barreled lightweight firearm originally used by cavalry

2

: a light short-barreled repeating rifle that is used as a supplementary military arm or for hunting in dense brush

Examples of carbine in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

You'd be forgiven for being a little sick of A Christmas Story, Bob Clark's beloved tale about 9-year-old Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) and the Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle he so fiercely desires. —Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 8 Nov. 2025

Outsize portraits of all three are hauled down endless streets as crowds of obligatory fans parade their wheelbarrows, shovels and carbines. —Will Tizard, Variety, 2 Nov. 2025

Elam has been researching the Pusser case for decades, and has provided information to the TBI, including a 2023 lead on a carbine that may have belonged to Pusser. —Keith Sharon, The Tennessean, 2 July 2025

Hale’s firearms included an AR-15 pistol, a semi-automatic AR pistol, a semi-automatic carbine rifle and a semi-automatic pistol. —John Miller, CNN Money, 2 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French charabine, carabine, feminine derivative of carabin "lightly armed cavalryman," perhaps a jocular designation altered from escarrabin, scarrabin "grave digger for plague victims," probably alteration by suffix substitution of escarbot "dung beetle," going back to Old French escharbot, from escharb- (going back to the base of Latin scarabaeus "beetle") + -ot, noun suffix (going back to Vulgar Latin *-ottus, diminutive suffix) — more at scarab

First Known Use

1592, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for carbine

• affine
• airline
• align
• aline
• assign
• baseline
• beamline
• benign
• bloodline
• bovine
• byline
• canine

Kids Definition

carbine

noun

car·​bine ˈkär-ˌbēn 

-ˌbīn

: a light short-barreled rifle