at gunpoint

Idioms  

1. Also, at knifepoint. Under coercion, as in I'm going to hold him at gunpoint for that raise he promised me last year. Both these phrases were at first used literally and later also figuratively. [Mid-1900s]

---

Example Sentences

Media reports say pro-Iran social-media accounts are sharing fake AI-generated images, such as captured American soldiers being held at gunpoint by Iranian troops and U.S. military bases and embassies in the Middle East being blown up.

From The Wall Street Journal

"They drove us out at gunpoint," says Lebanese citizen Zeinab Qataya, who fled her adopted home in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad and returned to her country to live in a camp built by Hezbollah.

From Barron's

Good is one of four people killed by ICE since the administration’s crackdown began in June, amid more than thirty incidents in which agents opened fire or held people at gunpoint, according to data compiled by the Trace.

From Salon

A Minneapolis pastor who protested ICE by chanting “We are not afraid” was detained at gunpoint by an agent who reportedly asked him: “Are you afraid now?”

From Slate

At Kenwood High School in Baltimore County, Maryland, a 16-year-old student was handcuffed at gunpoint after an AI-powered security system misidentified a crumpled bag of Doritos as a firearm.

From Salon