shot-clog

noun

Someone who is tolerated only because he pays the shot (reckoning at a bar etc.), for the rest of the group, otherwise he is a mere clog (obstruction) to them.

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Meanings

nounshot-clog (plural shot-clogs)

plural shot-clogs

  1. obsoleteslangSomeone who is tolerated only because he pays the shot (reckoning at a bar etc.), for the rest of the group, otherwise he is a mere clog (obstruction) to them.

    Our shot-clog makes so much of him.

    1625 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Staple of Newes. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
    1 more example

    Thou common shot-clog, gull of all companies.

    1605, George Chapman, Ben Jonson and John Marston, Eastward Hoe

Origin

From shot + clog.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

shot-clog. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shot-clog

MLA

“shot-clog.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shot-clog. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shot-clog,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shot-clog.

Source: shot-clog on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.