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shotgun

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: shot-gun

English

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Winchester 1911 shotgun (noun sense 1)
shotgun house (noun sense 3)
shotgun formation (noun sense 4)

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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    From shot +‎ gun. Front passenger seat sense comes from ride shotgun.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    shotgun (countable and uncountable, plural shotguns)

    2. (firearms) A gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge.
      Synonym: scattergun
      Hypernyms: long gun, longarm < firearm < gun < ranged weapon < weapon
      Hyponyms: sawn-off shotgun, sawed-off shotgun, sawed-off
      Coordinate terms: rifle, pellet gun; handgun, pistol; see also Thesaurus:firearm
      The farmer's son brought home a Thanksgiving turkey from the wild that he killed with his shotgun.
      • 1971, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, “Smackwater Jack”, in Tapestry, Ode Records:
        You can't talk to a man / With a shotgun in his hand
      • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 258:
        An unusual custom is followed at Llangennith, when shotguns are fired at a wedding - to scare off evil spirits from the newlyweds.
    4. (slang) The front passenger seat in a vehicle, next to the driver; so called because the position of the shotgun-armed guard on a horse-drawn stage-coach, wagon train, or gold transport was next to the driver on a forward-mounted bench seat. Can also be used in situations of claiming other resources such as bedrooms.
      Synonym: death seat
      I call shotgun! ― I claim the right to sit in the passenger seat.
      I call shotgun! ― I claim the right to this bedroom etc.
      • 1993, Octavia Butler, chapter 2, in The Parable of the Sower:
        We rode our bikes to it this morning—me, two of my brothers, four other neighborhood kids who were ready to be baptized, plus my father and some other neighborhood adults riding shotgun.
    6. (US, especially Southern US) A one-story dwelling with no hallways or corridors, with the rooms arranged in a straight line.
      Synonyms: shotgun house, shotgun shack
      Elvis Presley was born in a two-bedroom shotgun in Tupelo, Mississippi.
    8. (American football) An offensive formation in which the quarterback receives the snap at a distance behind the center, often with a running back set to one or both sides of him.
    10. (attributive, as a modifier)
      2. Relating to shotguns, either in a present or past sense.
        shotgun cartridges
        shotgun seat
      4. Relating to the threat of force or dubious means.
        shotgun wedding
        shotgun diplomacy
      6. Relating to the use of numerous, diverse or indiscriminate means to achieve a particular result.
        shotgun marketing
        shotgun approach

    Derived terms

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    Descendants

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    • Greek: σότγκαν (sótgkan)
    • Japanese: → 散弾銃 (sandanjū) (calque), → ショットガン (shottogan)
    • → Korean: 샷건 (syatgeon)
    • → Tok Pisin: sot gan

    Translations

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    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    Verb

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    shotgun (third-person singular simple present shotguns, present participle shotgunning, simple past and past participle shotgunned)

    1. (slang, smoking) To inhale from a pipe or other smoking device, followed shortly by an exhalation into someone else’s mouth.
      • 2017, “Super Potent”, in Renaissance, performed by The Underachievers:
        High as fuck, I light it up / Got pre-rolls for the whole month / She don't smoke but when I roll one / We shotgun the whole blunt
    2. (transitive, informal) To verbally lay claim to (something)
      I got a day off because I shotgunned it.
    3. (transitive, baseball) To hit the ball directly back at the pitcher.
    4. (US, slang) To rapidly drink a beverage from a can by making a hole in the bottom of the can, placing the hole above one's mouth, and opening the top.
    5. (US, slang) To send out many (requests, answers to a question, etc), especially in the hope that one obtains a positive result (i.e. reveals useful information, is correct, etc), in the manner of a shotgun firing many balls of shot such that one may hit a target.
      • 2009, Writing Fiction For Dummies, →ISBN:
        An actual physical piece of paper shows that you're not just shotgunning out queries to every agent on the planet.
      • 2011 December 6, John Schwartz, “Out of a Writer’s Imagination Came an Interactive World”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
        Science fiction writers are “shotgunning ideas” through their works, he said, and people tend to recall the pellets that hit the target.
      • 2013, Zack Arias, Photography Q&A: Real Questions, Real Answers, page 197:
        It's like they are on a generic mailing list and some photographer is just shotgunning cards out into the world with no thought as to who they are actually going to.
    6. (computing, slang) To employ the technique of shotgun debugging.
      • 1998, Stuart Ball, Debugging Embedded Microprocessor Systems, page 71:
        Understand the problem before fixing it. About the only scenario where shotgunning is useful is if there is a shorted IC and you cannot tell which one it is.

    Further reading

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    Anagrams

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    Portuguese

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    Etymology

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    Etymology tree
    Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd-der.
    Proto-Indo-European *(s)kéwd-(o-m)?
    Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewd-der.?
    Proto-Indo-European *sket-der.?
    Proto-Germanic *skut(t)-
    Proto-Indo-European *(ó)-os
    Proto-Germanic *-ą
    ?
    Proto-Germanic *skutą
    Old English sċot
    Middle English schot
    English shot
    Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen-
    Proto-Indo-European *-tis
    Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰéntis
    Proto-Germanic *gunþiz
    Old Norse gunnr
    Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂-der.
    Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂tís
    Proto-Germanic *hildiz
    Old Norse hildr
    Old Norse Gunnhildrder.
    Middle English gunne
    English gun
    English shotgunubor.
    Portuguese shotgun

      Unadapted borrowing from English shotgun.

      Pronunciation

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      • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈʃɔ.t͡ʃi.ɡɐ̃/, /ʃɔ.t͡ʃiˈɡɐ̃/, /ˈʃɔ.t͡ʃi.ɡũ/
       

      Noun

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      shotgun f (plural shotguns)

      1. (firearms) shotgun
        Synonyms: see Thesaurus:caçadeira
        • 2022 October 13, Felipe Goldenboy, “Como melhorar a mira de shotgun no Fortnite [How to improve your aiming with shotguns in Fortnite]”, in Canaltech‎[2], São Bernardo do Campo, archived from the original on 13 October 2022:
          A shotgun tem um alto poder de fogo, mas é mais lenta se comparada a outras armas, como SMGs, por exemplo.
          The shotgun has high firepower, but is slower when compared to other guns, like SMGs, for example.
        • 2025 March 24, “Grupo invade escola em Lisboa com uma shotgun [Group invades school in Lisbon with a shotgun]”, in 24notícias‎[3], Lisbon: MadreMedia:
          Apesar de não terem encontrado nenhum dos intervenientes quando chegaram ao local, foram várias as pessoas que confirmaram terem visto uma shotgun na mão de um dos jovens.
          Despite not finding any of the participants after arriving at the site, many people confirmed seeing a shotgun on the hands of one of the teenagers.
        • 2026 January 2, “PSP dispara “shotgun” na sequência de distúrbios em Loures [PSP fires shotgun after disturbances in Loures]”, in Expresso‎[4], Lisbon:
          Para controlar o grupo, os agentes da PSP efetuaram disparos de 'shotgun' […]
          To control the group, the PSP agents fired their shotguns.

      Usage notes

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      • In Brazil, the term is mostly restricted to video games.

      Further reading

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