gunplay

English

Etymology

From gun +‎ play.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

gunplay (usually uncountable, plural gunplays)

1. The discharge of firearms, usually with violent intent and in confrontations.

   In the aftermath of the Iraq War, the streets of Baghdad were sometimes filled with gunplay.

   • 1985, Larry McMurty, The Lonesome Dove, Simon & Schuster, published 2010, →ISBN, page 114:

     The one consoling thought was that there might be gunplay before the night was over—Dish had never been in a gun battle but he reasoned that if bullets flew thick and fast Jake might stop one of them, which could change the whole situation.

   • 2006, Philippa Gates, Detecting Men: Masculinity and the Hollywood Detective Film, State University of New York Press, published 2006, →ISBN, page 140:

     Cop action films revelled in scenes of action and violence with the male body at the center engaging in fistfights, kickboxing, car chases, and gunplay.

   • 2010, Terrence E. Poppa, Drug Lord: A True Story: The Life and Death of a Mexican Kingpin, Cinco Puntos Press, published 2010, →ISBN, page 156:

     The agents were outnumbered, outgunned, and way off the beaten track, but Becky quickly understood that nobody had planned on any gunplay.

2. (BDSM) A sexual practice involving the use of a (usually unloaded) firearm for physical and mental stimulation.
   • 1998 August 5, the wharf rat [username], “Re: ATTENTION, People new to "BDSM"”, in soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm‎^[1] (Usenet):

     My problem with gunplay is that it could lead to very bad habits. They're always loaded, even when they're "not loaded", and if you get used to thinking of them as not loaded you're going to get careless.

   • 1999 October 21, Malcolm McMahon, “Re: A proposal: soc.subculture.bdsm-ykiok?”, in soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm‎^[2] (Usenet):

     The recent fuss about gunplay isn't an ickiness issue but a safety argument.

   • 2009, Quince Mountain, “Cowboy for Christ”, in Jeff Sharlet, Peter Manseau, editors, Believer, Beware: First-person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith, Beacon Press, →ISBN, page 116:

     When the professor turned out to be too warped even for my tastes — consensual knifeplay is one thing; drunken gunplay quite another […]

References

• “gunplay”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.