Dictionary

sandgun en · NOUN

Etymology

From sand + gun.

Meanings

1. (rare) A device used to sandblast; sandblaster.
   • Other special fittings include a Clyde patent sandgun for tube cleaning. 1952, The Railway Gazette - Volume 96, page 23:
   • This engine has shields fitted which seemed to lift the exhaust better than the ordinary streamline casing of 21C9, and an L.M.S.R. sandgun which was used en route had good effect. 1944 March and April, E. S. Waterhouse, “Two Footplate Rides on "Merchant Navy" Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 88:
   • 9 Gresham & Craven live steam injectors, Clyde sandgun and Joco balanced regulator with drifting device. 1952, The Locomotive, Railway Carriage & Wagon Review, page 170:
2. A pipe that is used to suck up objects from a river or sea bed.
   • The air lift, or sandgun, sucks up the sand and mud, expelling particles everywhere, unless a tide is running. 1967, U.S. Camera and Travel - Volume 30, page 33:
3. A weapon that shoots sand or a sandlike substance.
   • The sandgun did burst out, sending the biting cold sand flying in all directions. However, it did not explode from the muzzle of the gun, but from the middle of the spear shaft! 2020, Da Ba, Beauty's Special Magical Doctor:
   • Trance was raising his sandgun when the blastwave hit. 2020, Marc Miller, Agent of the Imperium:
   • If someone deliberately set off the sandgun, I think I'm very possibly what they were aiming for. 2013, John Barnes, The Duke of Uranium:

Forms