How to Use rifleman in a Sentence

rifleman

noun
  • He was awarded a Bronze Star and spent the rest of the war as a rifleman.
    — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2019
  • Oforah was an infantry rifleman.
    — Louis Casiano, FOXNews.com, 12 Feb. 2026
  • His shrapnel shattered right elbow still bares scarred stories from his days as an Army rifleman.
    — Alex Butler, miamiherald, 28 Apr. 2017
  • Plus, the rifleman’s hand was now protected from the heat generated in the barrel.
    — Matthew Moss, Popular Mechanics, 19 Dec. 2022
  • Just as every Marine is a rifleman, every sailor is a firefighter.
    — Megan Rose, ProPublica, 23 Sep. 2022
  • Under fire from Spanish riflemen, the party was able to cut only two of the three telegraph lines and had to return to their ships.
    — Staff, cleveland.com, 29 May 2017
  • The West is filled with boulders, conveniently placed for riflemen, to spare them from lugging a bipod around.
    — David E. Petzal, Field & Stream, 25 Feb. 2020
  • Every Marine is a rifleman, and small-unit tactics are the lifeblood of Marine Corps units.
    — WSJ, 12 Apr. 2022
  • If every Marine is a rifleman, then every sailor is a damage controlman, the Navy likes to say.
    — Carl Prine, sandiegouniontribune.com, 21 June 2017
  • Every Marine is a rifleman first, regardless of his or her specialty.
    — Tyler Bonin, The Atlantic, 3 Mar. 2018
  • Ross moved to a forward position, 10 yards beyond his company’s riflemen, and set up his light machine gun.
    — Matt Schudel, Washington Post, 11 May 2017
  • While every Marine who completes training is a rifleman, women largely fill support roles.
    — Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, 5 Feb. 2021
  • Cancel joined the Marine Corps in 2017 as an infantry rifleman, said Maj.
    — Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2022
  • Choi worked as a rifleman on a radar base before even earning his PGA Tour card, and was able to hit golf balls at two-day intervals.
    — Henry Young, CNN, 19 Oct. 2017
  • In 1956, he was drafted into the Army and was trained as an infantry rifleman and in cryptography.
    — Yvonne Wenger, baltimoresun.com, 15 Apr. 2018
  • In Wasulu territory the remains of some of these walls are still standing; they were made with mud, pebbles, and karite oil, and had holes that could be used by riflemen.
    — Literary Hub, 5 Dec. 2025
  • Haughey was a rifleman with the 25th Infantry Division, and his photos were meant to help boost morale and put a human face on the war.
    — Grant Butler, OregonLive.com, 18 May 2017
  • Cancel had served briefly in the Marine Corps, joining in 2017 as an infantry rifleman, said Maj.
    — Arkansas Online, 7 May 2022
  • Those riflemen are the infantry troops who put themselves in the paths of bullets and bombs while carrying heavy rucksacks, who jump out of planes and otherwise subject their bodies to extreme wear and tear.
    — Kate Germano, New York Times, 31 Mar. 2018
  • Privates and noncommissioned officers were culled from stateside divisions, trained as riflemen, and sent overseas.
    — Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2025
  • He was thrown as a rifleman into the 112th Cavalry Regiment, out of Texas.
    — David Denby, The New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2022
  • Mamont, the ambulance’s rifleman, had met Artem while seeking help himself, after a Russian mortar left him with a brain injury and a disabled right hand.
    — Luke Mogelson, The New Yorker, 2 May 2022
  • Black riflemen performed so well, in fact, that almost 90% of white non-commissioned officers thought the experiment should continue.
    — Time, 5 Nov. 2025
  • The deployment, as an infantry rifleman in the California National Guard, was hell.
    — Reid Forgrave, Star Tribune, 28 Sep. 2020
  • Both are active-duty riflemen stationed in Camp Pendleton in California, said 1st Lt.
    — Joshua Bote, USA TODAY, 3 July 2019
  • Idaho’s prison system has nearly completed execution chamber upgrades to carry out the death penalty by firing squad as the state’s lead method and will have a team of riflemen ready to go by the time a state law takes effect this summer.
    — Kevin Fixler april 29, Idaho Statesman, 29 Apr. 2026
  • Woodruff, an infantry rifleman who was deployed to Iraq twice before being honorably discharged in 2009, said his program's focus is training service dogs.
    — Alaa Elassar, CNN, 23 Oct. 2019
  • Dave Brubeck, already an accomplished jazz pianist, serving in a military band at a Riverside, California, base, was reassigned, trained, then shipped overseas as a replacement infantry rifleman.
    — Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2025
  • There’s plenty of other good stuff in this novel, too, though true riflemen will no doubt shed a tear when a reloading room full of H-1000 powder and boxes of match bullets from Sierra, Berger and Swift goes up in flames.
    — John B. Snow, Outdoor Life, 2 Jan. 2020
  • Ming was eulogized during the service and more pomp that comes with a traditional law enforcement funeral service was carried out including the folding and presenting of the flag that draped his casket, a 21-gun salute (seven riflemen firing three volleys), and the playing of taps.
    — Emily Curiel, Kansas City Star, 11 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rifleman.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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