bird shot

American  

noun

1. small-sized shot used for shooting birds.

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Etymology

Origin of bird shot

First recorded in 1620–30

Example Sentences

Pieces of pottery, pins, hundreds of musket balls and bird shot, arrowheads, and a trigger guard for a musket turned up.

From Washington Post • Jan. 23, 2022

This fraud, these scams, it’s like bird shot.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2020

The name was a cheeky homage to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the newspaper that first reported the 2006 incident in which Dick Cheney accidentally fired bird shot into a friend.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 3, 2017

Here, after then vice-president Dick Cheney accidentally shot hunting pal Harry Whittington with bird shot – making him the first person to be shot by a sitting vice-president since Anthony Hamilton.

From The Guardian • Aug. 6, 2015

A scarlet-crested bird shot by below, brushing sure dark wings against a quivering bush.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller