gun for hire
Americannoun
-
a person armed with a gun and paid to provide security or act as an assassin or mercenary.
-
in business, an outside specialist or expert who is retained to work on a particular project and then dismissed.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"I do think overall I can give a reasonable opinion to the court," he said, adding he was not a "gun for hire" and that appearing in this case had been "tiresome, time-consuming and unpleasant".
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2021
In this vigorous and inventive western, Reilly plays a crooked gun for hire who’s desperate to go straight.
From Time ● Nov. 15, 2018
I did my own film but I’m happy to be a gun for hire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2017
She was the rare artist to make a successful transition from New York Brill Building-era gun for hire to accessible, vulnerable, personal California singer-songwriter.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 1, 2015
If I defend people in indefensible, corrupt acts, then I lose everything I have, and I’m just another gun for hire.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2010
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.
