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:
“Movies are one of the bad habits that corrupted our century. Of their many sins, I offer as the worst their effect on the intellectual side of the nation. It is chiefly from that viewpoint I write of them—as an eruption of trash that has lamed the American mind and retarded Americans from becoming a cultured people.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)
“Innings and afternoons. Fly lost in sunset.
Throwing arm gone bad. There’s your old ball game.
Cool reek of the field. Reek of companions.”
—Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985)