revolvern.
/rᵻˈvɒlvə/, U.S. /rəˈvɔlvər/, /riˈvɔlvər/, /rəˈvɑlvər/, /riˈvɑlvər/ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > rebelliousness > revolution > [noun] > revolutionary
innovator1598
revolver1698
revolutionist1710
sansculotte1790
revolutionary1795
revolutionizer1798
revolutioner1803
descamisado1821
radical1822
sansculottist1833
revolutionaire1835
red republican1848
redshirt1889
Bolshevik1926
Young Turk1948
1698 T. D'Urfey Campaigners 41 But let State revolvers, And Treason-Absolvers, Excuse if I sing.
2. † a. A person who goes from one state or place to another, esp. in turn. Obsolete. rare.
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a1711 R. Duke Fifteen Serm. (1714) xiii. 333 His Inconstancy to himself, his shifting with the various changes of times, in which he is always a quick Revolver.
1877 Charity Organisation Reporter 11 Oct. 156/1 It was discovered that ‘vagrants begged during the day and slept at night in the different police station-houses of the city, taking these in turn’... An order was soon after issued ‘closing the station-houses to the “revolvers” and ordering their arrest’.
b. Something that revolves or rotates on an axis, esp. in a machine or mechanism.
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1750 J. Dove Creed founded on Truth 29 [With reference to 1 Kings 10:22 and 2 Chron. 9:21] He imported every three Years..Revolvers on Centers, not Apes and Peacocks.
1843 Mechanics' Mag. 28 Oct. 306/1 In every part of each revolution there must be a complete separation between the gas on one side of the revolvers and that on the other.
1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. 286 Revolvers, rotary pistons.
1899 J. Cagney tr. R. von Jaksch Clin. Diagnosis (ed. 4) x. 436 The tube of the microscope is provided with a ‘revolver’ or ‘nose-piece’, to which lenses of different magnifying powers are fixed.
1921 U.S. Patent 1,387,862 1/1 Each tool is clamped to the revolver head by a stirrup-shaped clamping member.
2001 In Shaker Style (Fine Woodworking) ii. 40 One of the pieces was an unusual rotating stool called a revolver.
c. The sun or any of the planets, regarded as things that revolve or cause other things to revolve in their orbits. Now rare.
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1751 B. Holloway Originals Physical & Theol. I. 371 Pan, in the Orphic Hymns, is call'd..the Circulator; as is the Sun..Circulator, and circular Revolver. So Ouranus, Heaven, is stiled Spherical Revolver.
1786 C. Vallancey Vindic. Anc. Hist. Ireland xi. 398 Ce-pheni signifies the illustrious revolvers..whence Pan was Sol, i.e. the revolver.
1821 C. Housman Writing or declaration (ed. 2) 141 I must surely rob myself of my own reason, ere I could believe the Earth to be a revolver, or the Sun a fixture.
1862 A. Hislop Two Babylons (ed. 3) 434 ‘The revolver’, as applied to the sun is evidently just another name for the Greek Zen or Zan applied to Jupiter, as identified with the sun.
1881 G. Massey Bk. of Beginnings II. xx. 512 Bab, as the circle, is corroborated by the name of the Bibbu, given..to the seven Lubat, the planets, the revolvers, or gods of the orbit.
1905 S. H. Watson Secrets Time & Space 101 After these came the curved lines our Planets revolve on, or on which they swing through space. The Myth calls them revolvers at this time.
d. Astronomy. A camera with a rotating plate for making time exposures of celestial objects automatically. Now historical.
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society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > photography > camera > [noun] > scientific and technical
heliograph1848
revolver1876
spectrograph1884
photochronograph1891
photogrammeter1891
process camera1895
gun-camera1921
microcamera1928
phototimer1942
ballistic camera1945
monorail camera1958
1876 Nature 12 Oct. 534/2 Hence the value of a mechanical photographic revolver that would, every hour, say, photograph the sun, without requiring the interference of any one.
1912 F. A. A. Talbot Moving Pictures ii. 17 The astronomical investigator Jansen..evolved a photographic revolver to secure records at short intervals of the transit of Venus across the sun's disc.
1992 A. Rabinbach Human Motor iv. 105 Marey found that Janssen's revolver was more than adequate for tracking the slow movement of the planets.
e. Metallurgy. A furnace with a revolving chamber.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > furnace or kiln > furnace > [noun] > types of furnace by method of operation
lamp-furnace1651
wind-furnace1651
reverbatory1656
blast furnace1706
revolver1879
run-out1881
flame-furnace1888
producer1890
resistance furnace1897
induction furnace1907
suction plant1909
high-frequency induction furnace1918
solar furnace1924
roller hearth furnace1927
1879 C. G. W. Lock Spons' Encycl. i. 292 The ‘revolvers’ bid fair..to supersede the old hand furnaces.
1921 A. Rogers in A. Rogers et al. Industr. Chem. (ed. 3) i. 18 It is frequently necessary to stir the material during calcination... Mechanical means therefore have been devised, the most important of which is the revolver or revolving furnace.
1960 T. K. Derry & T. I. Williams Short Hist. Technol. xviii. 541 These ‘revolvers’, generally about 10 ft in diameter and 20 ft long, could contain a relatively large charge.
2000 W. A. Campbell in C. A. Russell Chem. Society & Environment iv. 81 The most satisfactory form of ‘revolver’ was designed by Williamson and Stevenson at the Jarrow Chemical Works.
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1753 Abstr. from Wks. John Hutchinson 142 The daily revolver of the earth..had a temple, and dances.
1840 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 753/1 The historian who is balancing conflicting evidence,..settling names and localities—such a one, when compared with the slow and painful revolver of philosophical subtleties, the metaphysician, or him who ponders the laws.
4. A type of handgun with revolving chambers which are presented in succession before the hammer, enabling several shots to be fired, typically along a single short barrel, without reloading. See revolving pistol n. at revolving adj. Compounds, and cf. Colt n.2, repeater n. 4c, six-shooter n.Samuel Colt's original patents of 1835 ( Brit. Patent 6909) and 1839 ( US Patent 1304) describe the revolving mechanism but do not use the word ‘revolver’.cocking, hip-, navy revolver, etc.: see first element.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > small-arm > [noun] > pistol > revolver
revolving pistol1839
revolver1844
black-eyed Susan1869
squirter1935
1844 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit xxxiii. 392 Ripper, Tickler, and the revolvers, all ready for action on the shortest notice.
1848 A. Sedgwick in Life & Lett. (1890) II. 143 Bring your patent revolvers with you to take care of Lady H.
1861 T. L. Peacock Gryll Grange xix. 160 See the complications and refinements of modes of destruction, in revolvers and rifles.
1876 W. Besant & J. Rice Golden Butterfly I. Prol. i. 6 If a search had been made, a revolver would have been found.
1905 E. Turner & R. Hodder Purloined Prince xxiii. 348 ‘Put them up again,’ said the Prince quietly, as he stepped out from behind the Count and raised his revolver.
1937 G. Surdez in Collier's 30 Jan. 16 Some officer would suddenly pull out his revolver,..remove a cartridge from the cylinder, spin the cylinder, snap it back in place, put it to his head and pull the trigger.
1964 E. S. Gardner Case of Phantom Fortune (1970) xix. 192 I show you a Smith and Wesson revolver.
1987 F. Flagg Fried Green Tomatoes 226 Electra was packing a .38 revolver that she knew how to use and had made uncouth threats pertaining to his manhood.
2005 J. Taffin Single Action Sixguns vii. 282 With a single action revolver, both rimmed and rimless brass all extract in the same way.
5. Finance (originally and chiefly U.S.).
a. Any of various types of revolving credit arrangement. Cf. revolving credit n. at revolving adj. Compounds.
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1971 A. Griffin Credit Jungle iii. 46 Their increased overhead and credit losses cut deep into the additional 18 percent they can gross from revolving charge accounts. But there is no doubt ‘the revolver’ is doubling net profits for many credit merchants.
1975 Wall St. Jrnl. 13 Mar. 27/3 The banks provided this aid largely through revolving-credit agreements, and these so-called revolvers to 44 of the trusts now total $6.4 billion.
1989 Amer. Banker (Nexis) 25 Apr. 1 Term-loan recipients are even more likely to bear fee charges than customers for multiyear revolvers.
2008 L. W. Tuller Finance for non-Finance Managers (ed. 2) iii. xvi. 288 Eliminate short-term debt (e.g., revolvers, lines of credit, credit card debt).
b. A person who habitually carries a balance on a credit card rather than paying it off in full each month.
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1977 W. F. Baxter et al. Retail Banking Electronic Age iv. 53 Revolvers will be more selective, using the card..occasionally for larger purchases.
1986 Amer. Banker (Nexis) 8 Sept. 1 While 75% of the cardholders said they would ‘seriously consider signing up’ for a credit card with ‘a much lower interest rate’, a higher proportion—82%—of revolvers expressed that sentiment.
1993 Kiplinger's Personal Finance Mag. Feb. 55/2 Revolvers love low interest rates, and rightly so.
2000 Mirror (Nexis) 8 Nov. (Features section) 6 Constant Revolvers: Always owe money and pay interest every month on their credit card.
Compounds
C1.
revolver-carrying n. and adj.
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1858 Morning Chron. 18 Oct. 2/1 You will perceive by the papers that things are in a precious mess here in Canton, revolver carrying the order of the day.
1882 Time 7 888 If he had not persisted in his confession, possibly twelve revolver-carrying citizens of the great Republic might have been found to return a verdict of ‘Not Guilty’.
1995 D. Zane F. Walker's Divided Heart (1998) 68 Schooled in the..practicalities of firearms from his revolver-carrying days in Toronto.
revolver bullet n.
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1854 Knickerbocker June 644 On taking off the skin, it was found that eight revolver-bullets had passed into ‘vital parts’.
2002 Evening Standard (Nexis) 23 Sept. 49 The revels are abruptly ended when someone steps out of the bushes and puts a revolver bullet into each of their heads.
revolver cartridge n.
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1858 Times 3 Nov. 9/3 The quantity of European knives, revolver cartridges and rifles.
1996 J. G. Bilby Civil War Firearms 222 (advt.) Combustible .36 and .44-caliber revolver cartridge kits.
revolver grip n.
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1884 Liverpool Mercury 9 Apr. 7/9 (advt.) Hammers below the line of sight, revolver grip stock.
1894 A. C. Gould Mod. Amer. Pistols & Revolvers (rev. ed.) xv. 218 Carry the right hand to cutlass hilt, and the left hand behind the back to revolver grip.
1971 I. Butykai tr. I. Lukovich Electr. Foil Fencing i. 20 Most foilists seem to prefer the revolver grip.
2006 Amer. Handgunner (Nexis) 1 July 120 Simply put those are the best feeling revolver grips on the planet.
revolver pistol n.
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1849 W. F. Lynch Narr. U.S. Exped. Jordan xvi. 350 The officers had severally a carbine, a revolver pistol, and a sword, three of the last having pistol-barrels attached to the blade near the handle.
1999 Amer. Criminal Law Rev. 36 1 Burton v. Livingstone, 791 F.2d 97, 99 (8th Cir. 1986) (concerning a revolver pistol cocked at an inmate).
revolver shooting n.
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1857 D. Fellowes Fourth School Reader 159 I have been practising, not mathematics and trigonometry, but pistol, rifle, and revolver shooting.
1918 W. Owen Let. 21 June (1967) 559 Today [I] have been Revolver Shooting.
1999 J. B. Whisker Rise & Decline Amer. Militia Syst. ii. 22 Awards are made in these categories: pistol and revolver shooting; small bore (.22 rimfire) rifle; junior and school small bore; high powered rifle.
revolver shot n.
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1855 P. S. Cooke Rep. 3 in Senate Documents VIII. lviii A straggling Indian, who..wonderfully dodged numerous revolver shots.
1993 Shakespeare Bull. Summer 12/1 Knives, multiple stabbings, a single revolver shot from Vasques, who walks off scotfree.
revolver target n.
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1887 Times 30 May 6/5 The Kynoch Gun Factory had presented two prizes to be shot for at the revolver targets.
1918 W. Owen Let. 24 June (1967) 560 The hideous faces of the Advancing Revolver Targets I fired at last week.
1996 Moravia (Iowa) Union 18 Dec. 2/3 Ivan Johnson 22 cal. revolver target sealed 8.
C2.
revolver camera n. now historical a small camera designed to resemble a pistol; = photo-revolver n. at photo- comb. form 2b.In quot. 1866: a fictional camera that revolves.
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1866 J. Mudd Collodio-albumen Process 69 Mr. Dryman, wished to remark that the ‘revolver’ camera, alluded to in the Chairman's address, must not be confounded with a photographic weapon of a similar name, which had been in existence some time.]
1882 Artist 1 Aug. 253/2 An unusual number of painters have added photography to their ‘kit’ for their rambles this season. Small pocket cameras..or the convenient ‘revolver camera’, are largely adopted.
1938 Pop. Sci. Monthly Aug. 28/1 (caption) Test of revolver camera, and three ‘shots’ made by it.
2005 J. Wade Cameras in Disguise 5 Thompson's Revolver Camera, or Revolver Photographique, is generally accepted as the earliest example of a disguised camera.
revolver range n. (a) the distance over which a revolver can be fired (esp. accurately); (b) a practice range (range n.1 10a) for revolver-shooting.
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1863 W. D. Bickham Rosencrans' Campaign xv. 110 The whole day was thus galloped away, Stanley losing not a man, the rebels keeping clean out of revolver range.
1887 Liverpool Mercury 23 July 6/7 At the revolver range today, Mr. Schlund put six consecutive shots into the disappearing man.
1976 Havre (Montana) Daily News 31 Mar. 6/2 Other benefits of membership, for only $6.00 per year are use of a modern indoor pistol and revolver range.
1993 R. S. Wheller Wind River li. 295 Jawbone was fast escaping revolver range.
Derivatives
reˈvolvered adj. provided or armed with a revolver or revolvers.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > arming or equipping with weapons > [adjective] > armed or provided with firearms > with small arms > with specific type of
pistoled1634
blunderbussed1851
revolvered1858
pistol-toting1903
pistol-packing1927
1858 Glasgow Herald 3 Mar. 2/1 Till the whole world knows that the whole of the British army is fully revolvered.
1879 O. P. Fitzgerald Calif. Sketches 100 The revolvered Americans would blaze away as they (the monkeys) clambered in fright to the highest branches of the trees.
1901 Pall Mall Gaz. 6 Mar. 1 The revolvered footman..is not quite so grotesque as the revolvered Protestant lecturer.
1963 V. Nabokov Gift v. 289 Not long before his deportation from Russia, when some revolvered leatherjackets had come to arrest him.
1995 B. Olds Raising Holy Hell 170 He lives like a cornered animal—knived, revolvered, cutlassed, and carbined—twenty-four hours a day.
reˈvolver-like adv. and adj.
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1886 R. B. Anderson tr. G. Brandes Eminent Authors 19th Cent. 185 His mind was loaded, revolver-like, with fancies, and they followed one another in swift succession, shot after shot, all aimed at the same point.
1891 H. Nisbet Colonial Tramp I. xxi. 209 Those revolver-like reports of the whip.
1925 T. Dreiser Amer. Trag. II. iii. xix. 228 His voice..as opposed to Mason's revolver-like ‘Excused!’
2009 Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 26 Sept. i.10 The laser thermometer is [a] revolver-like apparatus [that] shoots a laser and gives you a digital read-out of the temperature of whatever surface the laser hits.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
revolverv.
/rᵻˈvɒlvə/, U.S. /rəˈvɔlvər/, /riˈvɔlvər/, /rəˈvɑlvər/, /riˈvɑlvər/ colloquial (chiefly U.S.). Now rare.
transitive. To shoot with a revolver. Also intransitive.
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1858 G. A. Sala Journey Due North vii. 153 Our American cousins would be much less addicted to bowie-kniving, revolvering, expectorating, gin-slinging, and cow-hiding the members of their legislature.
1874 Printers' Circular June 116/2 I have never been horse-whipped, revolvered, knifed, licked, bricked, pummeled, or cussed for anything I have said, written, done, or left undone as an editor.
1887 W. Conn E. de Mandat-Grancey's Cow-boys & Colonels vii. 259 Those ‘prominent citizens’, who..caroused together, swindled and ‘revolvered’ one another with so much spirit?
1903 Rev. of Reviews July 8/2 If we were to go revolvering against Governments which clapped high duties on our goods, among the first to claim the attention of our six-shooter would be the Governments of Canada and Australia.
Derivatives
reˈvolverer n. a person who fires a revolver.
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society > armed hostility > warrior > armed man > [noun] > one armed with or using firearm > one bearing or using handgun > pistol > revolver
revolverer1885
1885 Sat. Rev. 17 Jan. 74/1 The revolverer never reflects; he is moved by his own fears.
reˈvolvering adj. and n.
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1874 Inter-Ocean (Chicago) 3 Mar. 4/3 Picturing to himself the typical American of the British stage as a revolvering, bowie-knifing, tobacco-chewing desperado.
1895 D. B. W. Sladen On Cars & Off xxv. 368 There has been no Pacific coast rowdyism, no revolvering.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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