scattershot

scat·ter·shot | \ ˈska-tər-ˌshät

How to pronounce scattershot (audio)

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Definition of scattershot

: broadly and often randomly inclusive : shotgun scattershot advice scattershot planning

Examples of scattershot in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Trump is a man of dots — scattershot moments connected only by Trump’s authorship of them. — Jonah Goldberg, National Review, "As with Everything Else, Trump Is Following His Gut on Iran," 8 Jan. 2020 But anyone looking for a consistently bracing critical intelligence like Arlene Croce or Molly Haskell will find Basinger’s approach too rangy and scattershot. — Louis Bayard, Washington Post, "The glorious history of movie musicals," 27 Nov. 2019 Even though their defense and special teams (especially scattershot K Jason Myers) were again less than impressive, the Seahawks' victory provided another forum to fuel QB Russell Wilson's accelerating MVP push. — Nate Davis, USA TODAY, "32 things we learned from Week 9 of the 2019 NFL season," 4 Nov. 2019 But those close to him acknowledge this is a particularly scattershot stretch from an always restive president. — Washington Post, "In 7 days of tweets, Trump lets the bedbugs bite," 29 Aug. 2019 The labor-market warning reinforces other evidence that the uncertainty caused by scattershot tariffs is now hurting employment as well as investment. — The Editorial Board, WSJ, "A Jobs Warning for Trump," 7 June 2019 The scattershot illogic of Donald Trump’s impeachment defense, and of his Presidency, was captured in his remarks on Tuesday, during a press appearance with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, of Canada, at the NATO summit, in London. — Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, "Trump Arrives at the NATO Summit—and Talks About Impeachment," 4 Dec. 2019 The scattershot offense with no real rhythm or identity is still the same. — Dan Labbe, cleveland, "The Browns’ wild win vs. Bills on Sunday is a perfect summary of their season so far," 10 Nov. 2019 With his trademark scattershot style, Giuliani played a key role in muddying the facts and trying to undermine the credibility of the Mueller investigation. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "White House dusts off Mueller playbook as pressure mounts," 27 Sep. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'scattershot.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

16 Jan 2020

Cite this Entry

“Scattershot.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scattershot. Accessed 20 January 2020.

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