shotgun

¹shot·gun

noun \ˈshät-ˌgən\

Definition of SHOTGUN

1

: a smoothbore shoulder weapon for firing shot at short ranges

2

: an offensive football formation in which the quarterback plays a few yards behind the line of scrimmage and the other backs are scattered as flankers or slotbacks

— shotgun transitive verb

— shot·gun·ner \-ˌgə-nər\ noun

First Known Use of SHOTGUN

1776

Rhymes with SHOTGUN

air gun, big gun, blowgun, Bull Run, burp gun, chaconne, Chaplin, dry run, earned run, end run, finespun, first-run, flashgun, forerun, godson, grandson, handgun, hard-won, have done, hired gun, home run, homespun, inrun, long run, milk run, outgun, outrun, popgun, pressrun, rerun, sea-run, short run, six-gun, speargun, spray gun, squirt gun, stepson, stun gun, top gun, trial run, undone, V-1, well-done, Xiamen, zip gun

²shotgun

adjective

Definition of SHOTGUN

1

: of, relating to, or using a shotgun

2

: involving coercion

3

: covering a wide field with hit-or-miss effectiveness

First Known Use of SHOTGUN

1892

shotgun

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Smoothbore shoulder firearm designed to fire a number of pellets, or shot, that cover a large target area after they leave the muzzle. It is used mainly against small game such as birds. The earliest examples were the fowling pieces that appeared in 16th-century Europe. Repeating shotguns, in which several cartridges could be loaded at once, became available in the 1880s. The range of a modern shotgun is about 50 yards (45 m).