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:
Much of the format is expected to stay the same in any new LIV - a shotgun start, team competition, music blaring from speakers and party holes.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
She left shortly after, and was planning to move back to northern Scotland - but instead the pair conducted a "shotgun wedding".
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
I’d been invited to ride shotgun in various hot cars before but declined.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Occasionally, a new tool or technique comes along that widens this to a shotgun: aim at a few closely related problems and hope that you hit one.
From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2026
Every afternoon he could be seen returning on horseback, with his hunting dogs and his double-barreled shotgun and a string of rabbits hanging from his saddle.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Pellet guns are shotguns designed for bird hunting.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Before the proxy fight, Seyfert’s only connections to Beretta were the shotguns he owned of theirs in his locker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
BBC News Persian's investigation confirms the extensive use of shotguns.
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 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
Behind me are Bob and Bill, each on a horse of his own, their shotguns slung across their saddles.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
And then he shotgunned a can of water.
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2018
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
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
A lot of people were on the side of Captain America and his fringed partner Billy, shotgunned off their glittering, raked choppers on a Southern back road.
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
"I was shotgunning from one city to the next," recalls the 36-year- old native of Peoria, Illinois.
From Time Magazine Archive
Parker There is magic to that one word: It's shorthand for the Golden Age of American shotgunning, or simply for the finest American shotgun.
From Time Magazine Archive
Still, many researchers considered shotgunning crude and inaccurate.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ithaca Model 4E This single-barrel trap gun was the last survivor of the Golden Age of shotgunning.
From Time Magazine Archive
Drawing a bead is a phrase that should be purged from the language of shotgunning.
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.
