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potshot

SayPOT-shotUS/ˈpɑtˌʃɑt/UK/ˈpɒtˌʃɒt/

Pluralpotshots

Verbpotshots, potshotting, potshotted

4 meanings of potshot

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  1. 1
    nouncountable
    A shot fired at an easy or random target, often without careful aim.

    A bored guard took a potshot at a passing bird.

    Vandals had been taking potshots at road signs all summer.

    Similarshot

    Note

    The original sense explains itself once you know the pot. From 1858, a potshot was a shot taken for the cooking pot: game killed for food rather than for sport, the same idea behind pothunter. The target was a meal, so an easy kill mattered more than a skilled one. The usual phrase is take a potshot at, with at naming the target, as in William MacLeod Raine's Wyoming (1908).

  2. 2
    nounfigurativelycountable
    A piece of criticism aimed at an easy target; a cheap or opportunistic jab.

    Every columnist took a potshot at the senator's clumsy speech.

    The debate dissolved into cheap potshots rather than real argument.

    Similarswipe, jab, dig, gibe, barb

    Note

    Criticism borrowed the gun in 1926 and kept the picture of the shooting sense: the target is still easy and the aim still casual. The construction carries over too. You take a potshot at someone, often in the plural, as in a share of potshots or vulgar potshots at a politician. The word suits a jab that seems cheap. For fair, serious criticism it undersells the case.

  3. 3
    verbintransitive
    To fire quick, casual shots at an easy or randomly chosen target.

    Soldiers would potshot at anything that moved beyond the wire.

    Snipers potshotted at the convoy from the surrounding hills.

    Similarshoot, fire, snipe

    Note

    A verb made straight from the noun. Like the noun, it puts at before its target rather than taking a direct object: William MacLeod Raine's A Texas Ranger (1910) has a man's friends potshotting at him. The final t doubles before an ending, giving potshotting and potshotted, and the past tense and past participle share that single form.

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    adjectiveobsolete
    Affected by alcohol to the point of being drunk.

    The squire grew potshot on cheap brandy before the toast was done.

    Several guests were already potshot when the dancing began.

    Similarblasted, bombed, besotted, boozy, befuddled

    Note

    Despite the spelling, this slang has nothing to do with shooting. It comes from an obsolete pot, a cup used for drinking liquor, so the drunk person is one who has been at the pot. The word is obsolete now. It fits period dialogue or historical fiction, but a modern listener will most likely hear the "cheap shot" meaning instead.

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Origin

Formed from 'pot' + 'shot', dating to 1858 for a shot taken to fill the cooking pot with food. The sense of 'opportunistic criticism' arose in 1926, while the 'drunk' sense comes from an obsolete meaning of 'pot' as a cup used for drinking liquor.