shotgun
Americannoun
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shotguns
plural
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a smoothbore gun for firing small shot to kill birds and small quadrupeds, though often used with buckshot to kill larger animals.
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Football. an offensive formation, designed primarily for passing situations, in which the backfield is spread out with the quarterback positioned a few yards behind the center and the other backs, as potential pass receivers, positioned as slotbacks or flankers.
adjective
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of, pertaining to, used in, or carried out with a shotgun.
a shotgun murder;
shotgun pellets.
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covering a wide area in an irregularly effective manner without concern for details or particulars; tending to be all-inclusive, nonselective, and haphazard; indiscriminate in choice and indifferent to specific results.
He favored the shotgun approach in his political attacks.
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seeking a desired result through the use or inclusion of a wide variety of elements.
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having all the rooms opening one into the next in a line from front to back.
shotgun apartment;
shotgun cottage.
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gained or characterized by coercive methods.
verb (used with object)
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shotguns,
present (3rd person singular)
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shotgunned,
past participle, past
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shotgunning
present participle
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to fire a shotgun at.
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Slang. to drink (something, especially a beer) quickly, by puncturing a hole in the bottom of a can, placing one's mouth over the hole, and then opening the top of the can slightly, causing the liquid to drain down one's throat.
I saw him shotgun a beer at the party last night.
idioms
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ride shotgun,
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to ride in the front passenger seat of a car.
The ride-along program lets you ride shotgun in a racing car with a professional driver.
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to protect or keep a watchful eye on something.
The treasurer is riding shotgun over the nation's economy.
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(formerly) to ride atop a stagecoach as a shotgun-bearing guard.
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call shotgun, to preemptively claim the privilege of sitting in the front passenger seat of a vehicle.
When I was a kid, calling shotgun was an important part of the drive to school.
noun
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a shoulder firearm with unrifled bore designed for the discharge of small shot at short range and used mainly for hunting small game
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( as modifier )
shotgun fire
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American football an offensive formation in which the quarterback lines up for a snap unusually far behind the line of scrimmage
adjective
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involving coercion or duress
a shotgun merger
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involving or relying on speculative suggestions, etc
a shotgun therapy
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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shotgunsimple
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shotgunssimple
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have shotgunnedperfect
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has shotgunnedperfect
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am shotgunningprogressive
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are shotgunningprogressive
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is shotgunningprogressive
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have been shotgunningperfect progressive
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has been shotgunningperfect progressive
Past
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shotgunnedsimple
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had shotgunnedperfect
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was shotgunningprogressive
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were shotgunningprogressive
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had been shotgunningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shotgun
An Americanism dating back to 1770–80; shot 1 ( def. ) + gun 1 ( def. )
Vocabulary lists containing shotgun
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.
See Examples For:
On a third-and-one play against the Las Vegas Raiders, for instance, the shotgun snap caromed off the knee of receiver Tre’ Harris, who was running closely behind the line from right to left.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
Now the company that made casual dressing cool in the ’90s is riding shotgun on another ’90s trend: the American boy band.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
"You start with a pistol, and then you get a shotgun, then you get a machine gun," Cregger explained.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
Justin Herbert looks comfortable in the system of new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, even with the retooled footwork in shotgun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
As I’m putting gas in the van, Hannah demands shotgun and forces Dalton to the back.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The first - from the start of November - covers types of handguns, shotguns and rifles.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
The 1988 Firearms Amendment Act banned the ownership of semi-automatic and pump-action rifles, weapons which fire explosive ammunition and short shotguns with magazines.
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026
Today, its pistols, shotguns and other weaponry are used by militaries and hobbyists around the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
By the time the couple split in 2021, he had become a gun enthusiast with about 25 rifles, pistols and shotguns, Angelica Ochoa said.
From Salon ● Feb. 2, 2026
I could see how it was a whole lot harder when things were real and you had to worry ’bout shotguns and chains and coughing little babies and crying folks without no clothes.
From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis
And then he shotgunned a can of water.
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2018
One man, shotgunned into marriage, had to be discharged because he developed a severe case of ulcerative colitis.
From Time Magazine Archive
Up to now chemists have regarded such compounds as indifferent to one another, capable at best of being shotgunned into chemical matrimony by violent stimulants, high temperatures and great pressures.
From Time Magazine Archive
Conference on Trade and Development, 75 underdeveloped nations squared off against 29 industrialized nations, which had been shotgunned into the meeting in the first place.
From Time Magazine Archive
A cookbook lies facedown in her path like a shotgunned bird.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Other labs were now in the shotgunning game--though of the 30 or so organisms decoded to date, two-thirds were decoded by TIGR, with results that are generally acknowledged to be of high quality.
From Time Magazine Archive
But one of his new recruits, Hamilton Smith, a Nobelist from Johns Hopkins', proposed a bolder approach: "shotgunning" the entire genome of an organism.
From Time Magazine Archive
Instead of assigning various segments of the genome to hundreds of scientists, as the Genome Project does, Venter plans to use what he calls whole-genome shotgunning.
From Time Magazine Archive
Venter admits that whole-genome shotgunning will leave gaps in the sequence where segments can't be fitted perfectly.
From Time Magazine Archive
"I was shotgunning from one city to the next," recalls the 36-year- old native of Peoria, Illinois.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
