n.
- A smoothbore gun that fires shot over short ranges. Also called scattergun.
- Football. An offensive formation, used especially for passing, in which the quarterback receives the snap several yards behind the line of scrimmage.
- Southern U.S. A house whose architecture is characterized by several rooms joined in a straight line from the front to the back: "Shotguns [are] so named because a shotgun fired through the front door of these long, narrow homes could pass straight through the house and out the back door without hitting any barriers" (Melissa O. Fryauf). See Regional Note at beignet.
- Of, relating to, or using a shotgun.
- Obtained by or involving by coercion: a shotgun compromise.
- Covering a wide range in a haphazard or ineffective manner: shotgun methods of testing the hypothesis that wasted time and money.
To shoot at with a shotgun.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
