Meanings
plural shotgun weddings
- idiomaticslangA wedding in which the bride is already pregnant.
If Red Skelton's joke can still elicit laughs, it is only because there is a minority who can still remember a shotgun wedding and even recall the understandings that lay behind that insistence, now seeming quaint, that a couple sleeping together should really be married.
2012, Hadley Arkes, “A Touch for First Principles: Reagan and the Recovery of Culture”, in Charles W. Dunn, editor, American Culture in Peril, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 48 - idiomaticslangAny similarly reputedly forced partnership, between people, organizations, components, or concepts.
But all this fails when we try to have a shotgun wedding between the two great theories of nature, relativity and quantum theory.
2021, Michio Kaku, The God Equation
Origin
From the implication that the groom was forced to the altar by shotgun-wielding relatives of the bride.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 奉子成婚
- 奉子成婚 (fèngzǐ chénghūn)wedding in which the bride is pregnant
Dutch moetje
- moetjewedding in which the bride is pregnant
Finnish haulikkohäät
- haulikkohäätwedding in which the bride is pregnant
French mariage précipité
- mariage précipitéwedding in which the bride is pregnant
German Mussehe, Mussheirat
- Mussehewedding in which the bride is pregnant
- Mussheiratwedding in which the bride is pregnant
- Musshochzeitwedding in which the bride is pregnant
- sie mussten heiratenwedding in which the bride is pregnant
Irish pósadh práinne
- pósadh práinnewedding in which the bride is pregnant
Italian matrimonio riparatore
- matrimonio riparatorewedding in which the bride is pregnant
Japanese できちゃった結婚, でき婚
- できちゃった結婚 (dekichatta kekkon)wedding in which the bride is pregnant
- でき婚 (dekikon)wedding in which the bride is pregnant
Korean 속도위반 결혼
- 속도위반 결혼 (sokdowiban gyeolhon)wedding in which the bride is pregnant
Polish ślub pod przymusem z ciężarną kobietą
- ślub pod przymusem z ciężarną kobietąwedding in which the bride is pregnant
Russian брак по залёту
- брак по залёту (brak po zaljótu)wedding in which the bride is pregnant
Spanish (matrimonio) penalti/penalty m casarse de penalti/penalty
- (matrimonio) penalti/penalty m casarse de penalti/penaltywedding in which the bride is pregnant
Welsh priodas glec, priodas orfod
- priodas glecwedding in which the bride is pregnant
- priodas orfodwedding in which the bride is pregnant
Cite this entry
shotgun wedding. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shotgun%20wedding
“shotgun wedding.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shotgun%20wedding. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shotgun wedding,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shotgun%20wedding.
Source: shotgun wedding on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.