smoking gun
noun
indisputable proof or evidence of a crime.
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Origin of smoking gun
First recorded in 1970–75
Words nearby smoking gun
smokerlyzer, smokestack, smokestack industry, smokey, smoking car, smoking gun, smoking jacket, smoking lamp, smoking room, smoking stand, smoking-concert
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020
Example sentences from the Web for smoking gun
Plumbers, hush money, enemies list, smoking-gun tape, the whole nine yards.
Watergate Remembered Four Decades Later at Washington Post Party|Howard Kurtz|June 12, 2012|DAILY BEAST
British Dictionary definitions for smoking gun
smoking gun
noun
a piece of irrefutable incriminating evidence
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Idioms and Phrases with smoking gun
smoking gun
Something that serves as indisputable evidence or proof, especially of a crime. For example, There is no smoking gun in the Oval Office; the President had no role in tampering with the evidence. This expression alludes to the smoke coming from a recently discharged firearm, a normal occurrence until the invention of smokeless powder. [Mid-1900s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.