shotgun

plural shotguns · alternative shot-gun

1. countableuncountableengineeringA gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge.

   The farmer's son brought home a Thanksgiving turkey from the wild that he killed with his shotgun.

   2 more examples

   You can't talk to a man / With a shotgun in his hand

   1971, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, “Smackwater Jack”, in Tapestry, Ode Records

   An unusual custom is followed at Llangennith, when shotguns are fired at a wedding - to scare off evil spirits from the newlyweds.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 258

   Synonyms: scattergun

2. countableslanguncountableThe 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. Can also be used in situations of claiming other resources such as bedrooms.

   I call shotgun!

   I claim the right to sit in the passenger seat.

   2 more examples

   I call shotgun!

   I claim the right to this bedroom etc.

   We rode our bikes to it this morning—me, two of my brothers, four other neighborhood kids who were ready to be baptized, plus my father and some other neighborhood adults riding shotgun.

   1993, Octavia Butler, chapter 2, in The Parable of the Sower

   Synonyms: death seat

3. Southern USUScountableespeciallyuncountableA one-story dwelling with no hallways or corridors, with the rooms arranged in a straight line.

   Elvis Presley was born in a two-bedroom shotgun in Tupelo, Mississippi.

   Synonyms: shotgun house, shotgun shack

4. countableuncountableAmerican footballAn offensive formation in which the quarterback receives the snap at a distance behind the center, often with a running back set to one or both sides of him.
5. attributivecountableuncountableRelating to shotguns, either in a present or past sense.

   shotgun seat

   1 more example

   shotgun cartridges

6. attributivecountableuncountableRelating to the threat of force or dubious means.

   shotgun wedding

   1 more example

   shotgun diplomacy

7. attributivecountableuncountableRelating to the use of numerous, diverse or indiscriminate means to achieve a particular result.

   shotgun approach

   1 more example

   shotgun marketing

present singular third person shotguns · participle present shotgunning · participle past shotgunned · past shotgunned · alternative shot-gun

1. slanglifestyleTo inhale from a pipe or other smoking device, followed shortly by an exhalation into someone else’s mouth.

   High as fuck, I light it up / Got pre-rolls for the whole month / She don't smoke but when I roll one / We shotgun the whole blunt

   2017, “Super Potent”, in Renaissance, performed by The Underachievers

2. informaltransitiveTo verbally lay claim to (something)

   I got a day off because I shotgunned it.

3. transitiveball gamesTo hit the ball directly back at the pitcher.
4. USslangTo 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.
5. USslangTo send out many (requests, answers to a question, etc), especially in the hope that one obtains a positive result (i.e. reveals useful information, is correct, etc), in the manner of a shotgun firing many balls of shot such that one may hit a target.

   An actual physical piece of paper shows that you're not just shotgunning out queries to every agent on the planet.

   2009, Writing Fiction For Dummies, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Science fiction writers are “shotgunning ideas” through their works, he said, and people tend to recall the pellets that hit the target.

   2011 December 6, John Schwartz, “Out of a Writer’s Imagination Came an Interactive World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   It's like they are on a generic mailing list and some photographer is just shotgunning cards out into the world with no thought as to who they are actually going to.

   2013, Zack Arias, Photography Q&A: Real Questions, Real Answers, page 197

6. slangcomputingTo employ the technique of shotgun debugging.

   Understand the problem before fixing it. About the only scenario where shotgunning is useful is if there is a shorted IC and you cannot tell which one it is.

   1998, Stuart Ball, Debugging Embedded Microprocessor Systems, page 71