Meanings
plural lone gunmen
- idiomaticAn individual person who acts on his or her own initiative, without partners, especially one who has sole responsibility for doing something questionable, confidential, or iniquitous.
Trial lawyers, always a colorful and eclectic bunch. . . . Most were lone gunmen too eccentric to keep much of a staff.
2008, John Grisham, The Appeal, →ISBN, pages 197–1982 more examples
He continues, "So when someone blows the whistle, the hospital has to start looking for a scapegoat. The hospital looks for the lone gunman—the individual, acting alone, acting counter to his training, who, through a gross act of incompetence . . . ."
2002, Jed Mercurio, Bodies, →ISBN, page 340The Wilson family had been sorely conflicted because each member had gone off in his or her own direction, thinking that they were all lone gunmen.
2008, Lee Raffel, I Hate Conflict! Seven Steps to Resolving Differences with Anyone in Your Life, →ISBN, page 260
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAn individual person who acts on his or her own initiative, without partners, especially one who has sole responsibility for doing something questionable, confidential, or iniquitous.
Origin
From the Warren Commission's lone gunman theory, that the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy was the work of a single individual, subsequently applied to numerous other political assassinations and shootings.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
lone gunman. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lone%20gunman
“lone gunman.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lone%20gunman. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lone gunman,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lone%20gunman.
Source: lone gunman on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.