smoking gun

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noun

indisputable proof or evidence of a crime.

Origin of smoking gun

First recorded in 1970–75

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for smoking gun

clue, evidence, proof, substantiation, support, telltale, corroboration, tip-off, verification, documentation

Examples from the Web for smoking gun

Contemporary Examples of 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

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]