# shotgun
## English
### Alternative forms

* shot-gun

### Etymology

From shot +‎ gun. Front passenger seat sense comes from ride shotgun.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈʃɒtɡʌn/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈʃɑtɡʌn/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɒtɡʌn, -ɑtɡʌn
* Hyphenation: shot‧gun
* Rhymes: -ʌn

### Noun

shotgun (countable and uncountable, plural shotguns)
* (firearms) A gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge.
    Synonym: scattergun
    Meat was cooked up within hours after the hunter killed the deer with his shotgun.
** 1971, Carole King, Gerry Goffin (lyrics and music), “Smackwater Jack”, in Tapestry, Ode Records:You can't talk to a man / With a shotgun in his hand
** 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 258:An unusual custom is followed at Llangennith, when shotguns are fired at a wedding - to scare off evil spirits from the newlyweds.
* (slang) The 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.
    Synonym: death seat
    I call shotgun! ― I claim the right to sit in the passenger seat.
    I call shotgun! ― I claim the right to this bedroom etc.
* (US, especially Southern US) A one-story dwelling with no hallways or corridors, with the rooms arranged in a straight line.
    Synonyms: shotgun house, shotgun shack
    Elvis Presley was born in a two-bedroom shotgun in Tupelo, Mississippi.
* (American football) An 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.
* (attributive, as a modifier) Relating to shotguns, either in a present or past sense.
    shotgun cartridges
    shotgun seat
* (attributive, as a modifier) Relating to the threat of force or dubious means.
    shotgun wedding
    shotgun diplomacy
* (attributive, as a modifier) Relating to the use of numerous, diverse or indiscriminate means to achieve a particular result.
    shotgun marketing
    shotgun approach

#### Derived terms

* double-barrelled shotgun
* ride shotgun
* sawn-off shotgun / sawed-off shotgun
* shotgun approach
* shotgun cloning
* shotgun debugging
* shotgun double
* shotgun fungus
* shotgun marriage
* shotgun mic
* shotgun microphone
* shotgun offense
* shotgun pleading
* shotgun proteomics
* shotgun sequencing
* shotgun shack
* shotgun start
* shotgun surgery
* shotgun wedding
* shotty

#### Descendants

* Japanese: → 散弾銃 (sandanjū) (calque), → ショットガン (shottogan)
* → Tok Pisin: sot gan

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

shotgun (third-person singular simple present shotguns, present participle shotgunning, simple past and past participle shotgunned)
* (slang, smoking) To inhale from a pipe or other smoking device, followed shortly by an exhalation into someone else’s mouth.
** 2017, “Super Potent”, in Renaissance, performed by The Underachievers: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
* (transitive, informal) To verbally lay claim to (something)
    I got a day off because I shotgunned it.
* (transitive, baseball) To hit the ball directly back at the pitcher.
* (US, slang) To 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.
* (US, slang) To 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.
** 2009, Writing Fiction For Dummies, →ISBN:An actual physical piece of paper shows that you're not just shotgunning out queries to every agent on the planet.
** 2011 December 6, John Schwartz, “Out of a Writer’s Imagination Came an Interactive World”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:Science fiction writers are “shotgunning ideas” through their works, he said, and people tend to recall the pellets that hit the target.
** 2013, Zack Arias, Photography Q&A: Real Questions, Real Answers, page 197: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.
* (computing, slang) To employ the technique of shotgun debugging.
** 1998, Stuart Ball, Debugging Embedded Microprocessor Systems, page 71: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.

### Further reading

* shotgun on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* shotgun house on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* gunshot, hotguns, noughts, unghost, hognuts, hutongs, uhtsong