a seven-inch phonograph record played at 45 r.p.m., especially a popular-music single.
She’s in the market for a phonograph so she can play her grandfather’s mint collection of 45s from the 1960s.
an identifier of or nickname for Donald Trump, the 45th U.S. president, alternately used with disparaging intent by opponents and with affection by supporters.
First recorded in 1945–50
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Spivey's .45 caliber, like most firearms, ejects casingsbehind and to the right.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
Hours later he would come ashore with a .45 pistol, pencils, and a sketchbook.
From Slate ● Jun. 6, 2025
For the past year, special prosecutors have built the case against Gutierrez, who has acknowledged loading Baldwin’s Colt .45 caliber revolver with what she thought were “dummy” bullets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
He has maintained he did not pull the trigger of the Colt .45 pistol and only drew back its hammer.
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2024
He thought he might have been able to reload them out of the .45 cartridges.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
David Anthony Rodriguez, 45, of La Verne, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to a count of conspiracy against rights.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Sixty years on, his widow Allyson Williams remains at the heart of the event, having been involved for the past 45 years.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
The same study, a Greenwald Research survey of 2,210 adults ages 45 to 79 who’d each saved at least $100,000, put numbers to the rest of it.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 16, 2026
Thinking Machines pretrained it from scratch on 45 million tokens of text, images, audio and video.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
More than 45 percent of women worked outside the home during the war, producing ammunition, building ships and airplanes, driving trains, and nursing the wounded.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
The Astros, born as the Houston Colt .45’s in 1962, have won none and have only played in one, losing to the Chicago White Sox in 2005.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 13, 2017
Never been worse, not even when they were the Colt .45's.
From Newsweek ● May 29, 2010
Gents, I've too much reespect for them good old faithful .45's of mine to play it as low down on 'em as all that.'
From Faro Nell and Her Friends Wolfville Stories by Dunton, W. Herbert
Notwithstanding the grim assertiveness of belts full of .45's and the peeping handles of long-barreled Colts, set off with picturesque chaps, sombreros and tinkling spurs, the scene was one of peaceful content and good-fellowship.
From Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up by Mulford, Clarence Edward
Before the 1962 season, Cárdenas moved on to serve as the lead play-by-play announcer for Houston’s new team, then known as the Colt .45s.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
And this neat piece of history — the Phillies were the first team to ever beat Houston, back in 1962 when the expansion Colt .45s lost at Connie Mack Stadium.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 23, 2022
Instead he enrolled at Oakland City College, now a university, where he played baseball before signing with an expansion team, the Houston Colt .45s, in 1962.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 12, 2020
Colorado beat the Cincinnati Reds 9-2, surpassing the 64 wins by the Houston Colt .45s in 1962.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 17, 2020
Next Joe Mondragon himself came in asking for two boxes of .30-30s and one box each of .45s,
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts an 80% chance for good conditions, which improved to 95% in the event of a 24-hour delay.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2023
The world number 45's run to his first Grand Slam final saw him fined for several outbursts on court.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2022
Agodon, who is a poet and a professor at Pacific Lutheran University, later published a piece titled “Getting an IUD on the Day of 45’s Inauguration.”
From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2022
"Our children deserve better. They really do," the teacher told FOX 45's investigative team, Project Baltimore, on the condition of anonymity.
From Fox News ● Feb. 3, 2022
The prospector stood forward, at the same time producing from an open holster blackened by time one of the long-barrelled single-action Colt's 45's, so universally in use on the frontier.
From The Rules of the Game by White, Stewart Edward
In the 1980s, jukeboxes with 45s gave way to CD jukeboxes, then a generation later, to streaming ones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 14, 2026
I had the Fisher-Price turntable with the 45s, and I was listening to all kinds of music.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2025
Age categories for over 45s, 50s, 55s, 60s, 65s and 70s for both men and women, saw thousands of players take part.
From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2024
The document does not explicitly say whether the rockets that would be produced for Russia were Sakr 45s, but such rockets would be compatible with Russian Grad multiple rocket launchers.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 10, 2023
Robin was actually cordial, inviting me to her room to sit on the floor and thumb through her 45s and set aside the ones I wanted to listen to.
From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
