Gats

Part of speech: noun, slang

Definitions

1. Informal term for firearms or guns; an abbreviated slang word used especially in casual speech to refer to handguns or other small firearms
2. Colloquial expression denoting pistols or weapons that project bullets; often used in popular culture or street language to mean guns
3. Slang reference to shooting devices or firearms; commonly employed in informal dialects to signify hand-held weapons designed for firing projectiles

Etymology: Gatling guns, invented by Richard Gatling in the 1860s, were rapid-fire weapons, and their nickname gave the slang term "gat" for a pistol or any gun. The shortening is the clean part of the story: "gat" is simply a clipped form of "Gatling", the name of the inventor's machine gun, so a word that now means a handgun descends from a man's surname. The plural "gats" is just the ordinary form of that noun, so the word carries the same origin.

Synonyms: guns, firearms, pistols, revolvers