shotgun

Pluralshotguns

Formsshotguns, shotgunning, shotgunned

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A gun that fires a load, typically of small metal balls called shot, from a cartridge.

   He loaded two shells into the shotgun and snapped the barrels shut.

   Bird hunters favor shotguns because the spreading shot makes a moving target easier to hit.

   Similarscattergun

   Note

   The name is simply shot plus gun: it fires shot, a spreading cloud of small pellets, where a rifle sends a single bullet through a grooved barrel. The spread suits moving targets at short range, such as birds in flight, which also explains its synonym scattergun, and the same gun can fire one heavy slug.

2. 2
   calling firstnounslanguncountable

   The front passenger seat of a vehicle, next to the driver; also used when claiming other things, such as a bedroom.

   Since she had called shotgun first, I squeezed into the back with the dog.

   At the beach house, Maya called shotgun on the bedroom with the balcony.

   Note

   The seat takes its name from ride shotgun, the place of the armed guard who sat beside the driver of a stagecoach, wagon train or gold transport. Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (1993) keeps the escort meaning, with adults riding shotgun alongside children on bikes. In everyday talk it is something you call: whoever says shotgun first gets the seat, and the claim stretches to bedrooms.

3. 3
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To lay claim to something by saying so out loud.

   She shotgunned the corner office the moment the lease was signed.

   If you want the big bedroom, you'd better shotgun it now.

   Similarclaim

4. 4
   wide netnoununcountablebefore a noun

   Using a broad, scattered mix of methods, often indiscriminately, in the hope that some will produce the result wanted.

   Shotgun marketing wastes money on people who will never buy the product.

   The senator's shotgun strategy of attacking every rival at once backfired.

   Note

   Here the picture is the spread of shot, not the threat behind the shotgun wedding: fire enough pellets and one may hit. A shotgun approach or shotgun marketing tries many things at once instead of aiming at one, and the comparison stresses quantity over aim.

5. 5
   under threatnoununcountablebefore a noun

   Achieved through the threat of force or by other dubious means, as in a forced deal or marriage.

   Critics called the treaty a piece of shotgun diplomacy, signed with warships in the harbor.

   The merger was a shotgun marriage arranged by regulators who feared the bank would collapse.

   Note

   The image is a gun held on someone to make them agree, and its classic setting is the shotgun wedding, a marriage hurried through under pressure. From there it stretches to politics and business, as in shotgun diplomacy, whenever a deal is forced rather than freely made.

6. 6
   football formationnounusually singular

   In American football, an offensive formation with the quarterback lined up several yards behind the center to receive the snap, often flanked by one or two running backs.

   On third and long, the offense went to the shotgun with two backs flanking the quarterback.

   Out of the shotgun, the quarterback has an extra moment to read the defense before he throws.

   Note

   Standing back from the center buys the quarterback time and a clear view of the defense, so the shotgun is a passing formation at heart, though teams run from it too. Its opposite is lining up under center, where the quarterback takes the ball straight from the center's hands. Teams go to the shotgun, and plays come out of it.

7. 7
   firearmnouncountable or uncountablebefore a noun

   Relating to shotguns, either as they are used now or as they were used in the past.

   The store sells shotgun cartridges only to customers with a license.

   On the old mail route, a shotgun guard rode beside the driver to protect the strongbox from bandits.

8. 8
   drink fastverbslangUStransitive

   To drink a beverage rapidly from a can by making a hole in the bottom, putting the hole to the mouth, and opening the top.

   The fraternity brothers lined up on the porch to shotgun beers before the game.

   She shotgunned her beer in under five seconds, to loud cheers.

   Similarchug

9. 9
   narrow housenoundialectalSouthern USUScountable

   A one-story house with no hallways or corridors, whose rooms are arranged in a straight line.

   They bought a run-down shotgun near the river and restored it room by room.

   In a shotgun, you walk through the bedroom to get to the kitchen.

   Note

   The house belongs above all to the American South, though the name is used across the US. In full it is a shotgun house or a shotgun shack. Elvis Presley was born in one in Tupelo, Mississippi. On its own the noun leans on context to stay apart from the gun: people live in a shotgun, buy one, restore one.

10. 10
    send manyverbslangUStransitive

    To send out many requests, answers, or the like, typically in the hope that one of them gets a good result, the way a shotgun's pellets spread toward a target.

    It's tempting to shotgun applications out to every opening, but a few careful ones work better.

    Desperate for a lead, the reporter was shotgunning emails to anyone who had ever worked at the company.

    Similarspam

    Note

    It often comes with out, as in shotgunning out queries or shotgunning cards out into the world, and it is usually a little scornful: the sender scatters things with no thought for who receives them. Not every use is a sneer, though; John Schwartz reports a view of science fiction writers as shotgunning ideas, with readers remembering the pellets that hit.

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