gun to your head

phrase

Introduces a situation in which the listener is forced to make an immediate choice or state a preference under pressure, especially where neither option is strongly preferred.

“Gun to your head, would you pick chocolate or vanilla?”

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Meanings

phrase

alternative with a gun to your head

  1. excessiveidiomaticIntroduces a situation in which the listener is forced to make an immediate choice or state a preference under pressure, especially where neither option is strongly preferred.

    Gun to your head, would you pick chocolate or vanilla?

    2 more examples

    If it was just your decision, and if I put a gun to your head... would you accept a million quid for your website, or wouldn't you?

    2019, James Taylor, Japonica Secrets (fiction), →ISBN, →OCLC

    "Okay, gun to your head," Saira says. "You have to pick one of us. Would you trade places with me, the Indian American woman, or Regina, the Black woman?"

    2022, Regina Jackson, Saira Rao, White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better, New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page xlii
Cite this entry
APA

gun to your head. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gun%20to%20your%20head

MLA

“gun to your head.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gun%20to%20your%20head. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gun to your head,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gun%20to%20your%20head.

Source: gun to your head on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.