gun for hire
Americannoun
plural
guns for hire-
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.
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.
As a political gun for hire, Smith has worked in communications for a series of high-profile names in Democratic politics: Barack Obama, Andrew Cuomo, Pete Buttigieg, Claire McCaskill, Terry McAuliffe, Jon Corzine.
From New York Times • Jul. 18, 2022
In this vigorous and inventive western, Reilly plays a crooked gun for hire who’s desperate to go straight.
From Time • Nov. 15, 2018
Answer Man is not a genealogical gun for hire.
From Washington Post • Aug. 25, 2018
I did my own film but I’m happy to be a gun for hire.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 27, 2017
He thinks, I could end up like Rafa Benitez, as a very well-paid gun for hire who changes job every season.
From BBC • May 4, 2015
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.
