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
The 66-year-old actor was practising firing a Colt .45 pistol before filming a scene for Rust, a forthcoming Western filmed near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October 2021.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2024
Baldwin has long maintained that he did not pull the trigger of his prop gun — a Colt .45 revolver — on Oct.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2024
With his long raincoat with the popped-up collar and the .45 in his wide leather belt, he looked like an old-timey gunslinger.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
CIF rules that restrict tackling to two days per week and a maximum of 45 to 90 minutes a day were adopted in an effort to protect players from concussions and injuries.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
By 2035, the aim is for every young person to have 45 days of work experience by the time they're 19.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
The Senate was even more unequivocal—passing it 75 to 19, with the votes of 45 Republicans and 30 Democrats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
She and her daughter Helena, 45, said they were being well looked after, eating properly and being given paracetamol when they needed it.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
As a result, by 1880, when 76 percent of North Carolina’s white children could read and write, only 45 percent of black children were literate.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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
The National League followed suit in 1962, adding the New York Mets and Houston Colt .45s.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 20, 2023
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
They began as the expansion Colt .45s in 1962.
From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2017
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
And the co-owner with Michael Jordan of Wallace’s car at 23XI Racing managed to whittle about a tenth of a second off the No. 45’s lead over the closing laps.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 11, 2022
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
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
Today, original pressings of records featuring Father Yod — there were about 20 LPs and 45s released in the 1970s — sell for hundreds of dollars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2023
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.
