Enfield
(ˈɛnfiːld)
The name of a town in Middlesex (now in Greater London), near which the Government has a manufactory of small arms. Used attrib. with various military terms, as in Enfield rifle, etc.
| 1854 C. A. Windham Crimean Diary (1897) 91 The Enfield rifle..should be the arm for the infantry. 1858 Greener Gunnery 377 The length of the Enfield bullet is 7/8 inch. 1858 Beveridge Hist. India III. ix. iv. 633 One hundred Enfield riflemen of the 64th. Ibid. Covered at discretion by Enfield skirmishers. Ibid. 634 The power of the Enfield rifle in British hands. 1860 [see Brown Bess]. 1876 [see Minié]. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. V. 674/2 The Enfield system of rifling..was adopted. In 1895 the Lee-Enfield rifle was introduced. |