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 verbExplore Merriam-Webster
1776
First Known Use of shotgun
1776
shotgun
Definition of shotgun
1 : of, relating to, or using a shotgun
2 : involving coercion
3 : covering a wide field with hit-or-miss effectiveness
1892
First Known Use of shotgun
1892
SHOTGUN Defined for English Language Learners
shotgun
playDefinition of shotgun for English Language Learners
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: a gun with a long barrel that shoots a large number of small metal balls (called buckshot)
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American football : an offensive formation in which the quarterback is a few yards behind the line of scrimmage at the start of a play
SHOTGUN Defined for Kids
shotgun
playDefinition of shotgun for Students
: a gun with a long barrel used to fire shot at short range
Learn More about shotgun
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See words that rhyme with shotgun Spanish Central: Translation of shotgun Nglish: Translation of shotgun for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of shotgun for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about shotgun
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