A side arm is a weapon, usually a pistol but sometimes a dagger or other melee weapon, which is worn on the body in a holster to permit immediate access and use. A side arm is typically required equipment for military personnel and sometimes carried by law enforcement personnel. Usually, uniformed personnel of these services wear their weapons openly, while plainclothes personnel have their side arms concealed under their clothes. A side arm may be carried alone, or as a back-up to a primary weapon such as a rifle or carbine. Most standing army also have service pistols.
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Famous quotes containing the words side and/or arm:
“Let him
Who was love’s teacher teach you too love’s cure;
Let the same hand that wounded bring the balm.
Healing and poisonous herbs the same soil bears,
And rose and nettle oft grow side by side.”
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)
“Summoning a child’s voice from a webfoot stone,
Never never oh never to regret the bugle I wore
On my cleaving arm as I blasted in a wave.
Now shown and mostly bare I would lie down,
Lie down, like down and live
As quiet as a bone.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)