From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsemi-automaticˌsemi-autoˈmatic (also semiautomatic American English) /ˌsemiɔːtəˈmætɪk◂ $ -ɒːtə-/ adjective PMWa semi-automatic weapon moves each bullet into position ready for you to fire, so that you can fire the next shot very quickly —semi-automatic noun [countable]
Examples from the Corpus
semi-automatic• He could remember the suppressed clattering noise of the firing on semi-automatic.• There's also 2 Smith and Wesson revolvers and a Beretta semi-automatic.• In the late 1960's, a Volkswagen car took 19 man-hours to build, thanks largely to semi-automatic aids.• The manufacture and sale of nine types of foreign and domestic semi-automatic assault weapons would also be prohibited for three years.• The Fordist labour process base is semi-automatic assembly-line production on the Detroit model.• It had a dolphin-shaped nose and a semi-automatic gearbox.• A police officer armed with a semi-automatic gun stood guard.• For 20-30 minutes he fired at lunchtime diners with two large-capacity ammunition clip semi-automatic pistols, before finally killing himself. 