buckshot
Pluralbuckshots
- 1Lead shot for shotgun cartridges, made of pellets larger than birdshot and suited to hunting bigger game.
Like scattering a fistful of ball bearings toward a target so that several strike at once.
Each shell was packed with buckshot heavy enough to drop a charging boar.
Rangers warned that buckshot scatters widely, making it dangerous well beyond the intended target.
Note
The name joins buck and shot, pointing to the bigger animals the load was made for. It is usually a mass noun, as in a shell loaded with buckshot, but it can also count single pellets. Buffalo Bill's The Life of Hon. William F. Cody (1879) describes a rifle that "carried a bullet, and two buckshots." The word belongs mainly to American usage.
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Origin
Formed from the words "buck" and "shot."