A pistol is a small gun you hold in one hand. A rifle is long and you put it against your shoulder; a pistol is short, so your arm does all the work. Police officers and soldiers often carry pistols, and in some countries a person may keep one at home. One kind of pistol is a revolver: it has a round part that turns and holds the bullets. Other pistols keep the bullets in a small box in the handle. A starting pistol is the gun that bangs at the beginning of a race; it is still a pistol, even when it only makes a sound. In older American speech, if you call a person a pistol, you mean they are lively and a little wild, often in a fond way — "She's a real pistol." That is informal, and you will not hear it much in Taiwan. There is also a verb, to pistol someone, meaning to shoot them with a pistol, but it is rare and a bit old; people usually just say shoot.