Shotgun definition
Used to claim the front passenger seat of a vehicle before a trip has started.
interjection
(football) An offensive formation, used especially for passing, in which the quarterback receives the snap several yards behind the line of scrimmage.
noun
(slang, smoking) To inhale from a pipe or other smoking device, followed shortly by an exhalation into someone else's mouth.
verb
(US, slang) To rapidly drink a beverage from a can by making a hole in the bottom of the can, placing the hole above one's mouth, and opening the top.
verb
Of, relating to, or using a shotgun.
adjective
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A smoothbore gun, usually used for firing a charge of shot at short range, as in hunting small game.
noun
Covering a wide range in a haphazard or ineffective manner.
Shotgun methods of testing the hypothesis that wasted time and money.
adjective
(slang) The front passenger seat in a vehicle, next to the driver; so called because the position of the shotgun-armed guard on a horse-drawn stage-coach, wagon train, or gold transport was next to the driver on a forward-mounted bench seat.
I call shotgun! (I claim the right to sit in the passenger seat.)
noun
(informal) To verbally lay claim to (something)
I got a day off because I shotgunned it.
verb
A smoothbore gun that fires shot over short ranges.
noun
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Obtained by or involving coercion.
A shotgun compromise.
adjective
(football) An offensive formation, esp. for passing, in which the quarterback takes the snap while standing several yards behind the line of scrimmage.
noun
To shoot, force, or threaten with a shotgun.
verb
Done or made under duress; specif., designating a wedding or marriage into which one or both partners are forced, as because of pregnancy.
adjective
Covering many points in a random, hit-or-miss way.
adjective
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Designating a long, narrow house, apartment, etc. with rooms arranged one behind the other.
adjective
A gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge.
noun
(US) A one-story dwelling with no hallways or corridors, with the rooms arranged in a straight line. Mostly heard in the southern United States.
Elvis Presley was born in a two-bedroom shotgun in Tupelo, Mississippi.
noun
(American football) A play formation in which the quarterback is a few feet behind the snapper when the ball is hiked, ideally allowing for an easier pass play.
noun
(baseball) To hit the ball directly back at the pitcher.
verb
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Of or relating to a shotgun.
The ground was littered with shotgun shells.
adjective
Occurring as a result of the threat of force.
A shotgun wedding.
adjective
Utilizing numerous or highly diverse means to achieve a particular result.
adjective
To shoot at with a shotgun.
verb
ride shotgun
- To sit in the front passenger seat of a vehicle during a trip.
idiom
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ride shotgun
- in the W U.S., to go along as an armed guard, esp. with the driver of a stagecoach
- to ride in the front passenger seat of a motor vehicle
idiom
Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
Origin of shotgun
- Interj. and idiom, probably from shotgun messenger a private armed guard who protected strongboxes and other valuable shipments on stagecoaches and rode in the seat next to the driver
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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From Wiktionary