hired gun

See synonyms for hired gun on Thesaurus.com
nounInformal.
  1. a person hired to kill someone, as a gunfighter or professional killer.

  2. a person hired to bear arms and fight for another, as a bodyguard or mercenary.

  1. a person, as a politician or lobbyist, skilled at attaining power for others.

  2. a person hired to resolve difficult problems or disputes or to handle complex legal or business problems.

Origin of hired gun

1
First recorded in 1965–70

Words Nearby hired gun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hired gun in a sentence

Other Idioms and Phrases with hired gun

hired gun

A person, especially a professional killer, employed to kill someone, as in They thought the murder had been done by a hired gun. The noun gun has been slang for a professional criminal since the mid-1800s.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.