Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Shotgun |
ShotgunNoun1. Firearm that is a double-barreled smoothbore shoulder weapon for firing shot at short ranges. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "shotgun" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1880. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of a shotgun, foretells domestic troubles and worry with children and servants. To shoot both barrels of a double-barreled shotgun, foretells that you will meet such exasperating and unfeeling attention in your private and public life that suave manners giving way under the strain and your righteous wrath will be justifiable. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Food & Agriculture | A device inserted into an undercut to determine the direction of fall of the tree. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The United States legal code (18 USC 921) defines the shotgun as "a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of the explosive in a fix the shotgun shell to fire through a smooth bore either a number of ball shot or a single projectile for each single pull of the trigger." United Kingdom law requires that a shotgun not be capable of holding more than three rounds; if it holds more it is classed as a firearm.
This definition, however, does not exactly match the technical use of the term, which would include the growing number of shotguns specifically designed to fire single projectiles instead of shot. Rifled slugs, which have fins or rifling on or behind the bullet designed to keep the bullet tracking straight at the target, is an example of a single projectile. Some shotguns have rifled barrels and are designed to be used with a "sabot" bullet. A sabot bullet is typically encased in two-piece plastic ring and the plastic is designed to fall away after it passes the end of the barrel, leaving the bullet to continue toward the target while twisting (from passing through the rifled barrel) to keep it's trajectory. These shotguns although they have rifled barrels still use a shotgun-style shell instead of a rifle cartridge. Hunting laws may differentiate between smooth barreled and rifled barreled guns.
Also, technically speaking, many people would likely call a fully automatic shotgun a shotgun, even though legally it would fall under a different category.
There are many types of shotguns. There is the over and under shotgun, the side-by-side shotgun, both of which are types of double barreled shotguns. There are pump action shotguns and semi-automatic shotguns. The NeoStead 2000 is an example of how shotgun technology has developed.
The caliber of shotguns is measured in terms of gauge. The gauge number is determined by the number of solid spheres of a diameter equal to the inside diameter of the barrel that could be made from a pound of lead. So a 10 gauge shotgun has the inside diameter equal to that of a sphere made from one-tenth of a pound of lead. Common gauges are 12 and 20, although 8, 10, 16, 28 gauges and .410 calibre are also produced.
Despite the above mention of slugs and sabots most shotguns are used to fire "a number of ball shot". The ball shot or pellets are used to be lead but this has been replaced by bismuth, steel, tungsten-iron, tungsten-nickel-iron and even tungsten polymer loads. They are termed either birdshot or buckshot depending on the shot size. Informally birdshot pellets have a diameter smaller than 0.20 inches and buckshot larger. Pellet size is indicated by a cartridge number, for birdshot this ranges from the smallest 12 (0.05") to 2 (0.15") and then BB (0.18"), for buckshot the numbers usually start at 4 (0.24") and go down to 1, 0, 00 and finally 000 (0.36").
Shotgun barrels come in a range of chokes, that is the degree of constriction in the barrel that keeps the shot in a tight pattern. Cylinder barrels have no constriction. In increasing order of constriction: Improved (or 1/4), Modified (or 1/2), Improved Modified (or 3/4), and Full choke.
In hunting circles, the shotgun is used for bird hunting, although it is also increasingly used in deer hunting in semi-populated areas where the long-distance travel of the rifle bullet may pose too great a hazard. Many modern smooth bore shotguns using rifled slugs are extremely accurate out to 75 yards or more, while the rifled barrel shotgun with the use of sabot slugs are typically accurate to 100 yards and beyond -- well within the range of the majority of kill shots by experienced deer hunters using shotguns.
Law enforcement often use shotguns, especially for crowd and riot control where they may be loaded with non-lethal rounds such as rubber bullets or bean bags. The shotgun is also commonly used for home defense in the United States and Canada. It is particularly suitable for this purpose because it is very intimidating and will often end the assault with a single shot, if it comes to that.
"Shotgun" can also mean the passenger position next to the driver of a vehicle, from the tradition of that person defending the vehicle with a shotgun. In America, there is a tradition known as "calling shotgun", which determines who gets to sit next to the driver.
Among smokers of cannabis, shotgun can have several meanings:
- On many glass pipess, there is a small hole on the side of the bowl. This hole, a shotgun, is plugged with a finger while the material is lit inside the bowl. Once the hollow pipe is full of smoke, the shotgun is let go, thus allowing the smoke to empty.
- When smoking a cannabis cigarette of some sort, most typically a hollowed-out cigar called a blunt, two people can participate in the blowing of a "shotgun". When the cigarette is nearly burned all the way through, the lit end is placed in one person's mouth, with his lips clenched tightly on the unburning end. Another person (or both) forms a tube with his or their hands, and the person with the cigarette in his mouth exhales forcefully, forcing the smoke into the other person's mouth. This practice is widely regarded as intimate, and is usually performed between friends or lovers.
- A gravity bong (a type of water pipe) consists of a container, generally a two-liter soda bottle, with the bottom cut off and placed in a pail of water. With the cap of the bottle converted into a hitter (which functions as the bowl in a pipe), the cannabis can be lit and air pressure will force the smoke into the bottle as it is slowly raised, lowering the water level inside the bottle. When the bottle is mostly full, the cap is unscrewed and the smoke inhaled. A shotgun occurs when the smoker carefully inhales and exhales repeatedly in sync with raising and lowering the bottle, repeatedly forcing the smoke into his lungs.
Shotgun (used as a verb) also refers to a practice of drinking beer very quickly out of a can. When one shotguns a beer, he or she punches a hole in the side of the can near the bottom -- often using a key or other sharp instrument. The person then puts his or her mouth around the hole and opens the can in the usual manner. This causes the beer to be forced out of the can (and into the drinkers mouth) very rapidly.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Shotgun."
Synonym: ShotgunSynonym: scattergun (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Arms | Small arms; musket, musketry, firelock, fowling piece, rifle, fusil, caliver, carbine, blunderbuss, musketoon, Brown Bess, matchlock, harquebuss, arquebus, haguebut; pistol, postolet; petronel; small bore; breach-loader, muzzle-loader; revolver, repeater; Minis rifle, Enfield rifle, Flobert rifle, Westley Richards rifle, Snider rifle, Martini-Henry rifle, Lee-Metford rifle, Lee-Enfield rifle, Mauser rifle, magazine rifle; needle gun, chassepot; wind gun, air gun; automatic gun, automatic pistol; escopet, escopette, gunflint, gun-lock; hackbut, shooter, shooting iron , six-shooter, shotgun; Uzzi, assault rifle, KalashnikoVerb: |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Now slide that shotgun over here (Natural Born Killers; writing credit: David Veloz) Do you think her fallopian tubes could handle the sperm? I guarantee you he blows a load like a shotgun right through her back (Mallrats; writing credit: Kevin Smith) I heard you were riding shotgun for the Overland Stage (Return of the Seven; writing credit: Larry Cohen) The one with the shotgun. (Silverado; writing credit: Lawrence Kasdan; Mark Kasdan) Now on the shotgun we've my man Leroy (The Toxic Avenger; writing credit: Lloyd Kaufman; Joe Ritter) | |
Lyrics | Words were passed in a shotgun blast (MY HOMETOWN; performing artist: Bruce Springsteen) I've got a shotgun, a rifle (A Country Boy Can Survive (Y2K Verison); performing artist: Chad Brock) And a big body shotgun riding on dubs (Bow Wow [That's My Name]; performing artist: Lil Bow Wow) The wedding was shotgun (I BELIEVE IN LOVE; performing artist: Paula Cole) Over the counter with a shotgun (Desire; performing artist: U2) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Shotgun Wedding (1963) Riding Shotgun (1954) Shotgun Pass (1931) The Phantom Shotgun (1917) Shotgun Jones (1914) | |
Song Titles | Shotgun (performing artist: Jr. Walker and The All Stars) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Playground at Shotgun Park. Credit: D. Huntington. |  | Child explores Shotgun Park along bank of brook. Credit: D. Huntington. |
 | "After a shooting trip ashore, officers of the gunboat Miami relax on deck with the hounds", circa 1864-65. Note officer with shotgun and game bag, with two hunting dogs at his feet. Seated Lieutenant at left holds a smaller dog while sharing a newspaper with other officers nearby. Quoted caption data comes from Miller's Photographic History of the Civil War, Volume 6, page 199. Credit: NAVY. |  | The muzzle of that shotgun is about fourteen inches from the center of your body and pointed right at you. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Shotgun wedding. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | May have to be a shotgun affair. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | A Los Angeles police officer, armed with a shotgun, searches bag of African-American woman while another woman holding baby watches. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Shotgun wedding as imagined by Homer Tate. Safford, Arizona. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | A 12 gauge shotgun being loaded with a cartridge. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | At the end of the street a guard still sat, his shotgun resting against his knee |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Human Rights | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | The police asserted that Cuffy had a shotgun in his possession. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Dennis Miller | I want a pneumatic tube in my house with a scanner that will read my mind, select my food and then shotgun a pre-chewed burger and fries bolus directly into my a-hole while a computer simultaneously deducts the cost from my ATM. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Shotgun" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.74% of the time. "Shotgun" is used about 397 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.74% | 392 | 14,171 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 0.5% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.5% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.25% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 397 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "shotgun": shot from a shotgun ♦ shotgun debugging ♦ shotgun marriage ♦ shotgun shell ♦ shotgun wedding. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "shotgun": shotgun-toting. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
shotgun | 2,260 | 410 shotgun | 75 |
shotgun news | 476 | 12 gauge shotgun | 72 |
benelli shotgun | 287 | verona shotgun | 71 |
beretta shotgun | 231 | shotgun sports | 70 |
browning shotgun | 224 | skb shotgun | 68 |
remington shotgun | 199 | shotgun barrels | 67 |
mossberg shotgun | 173 | shotgun ammunition | 67 |
winchester shotgun | 143 | side by side shotgun | 67 |
shotgun for sale | 122 | franchi shotgun | 64 |
double barrel shotgun | 107 | ithaca shotgun | 64 |
shotgun shell | 105 | stoeger shotgun | 63 |
used shotgun | 104 | combat shotgun | 61 |
antique shotgun | 94 | shotgun case | 61 |
over under shotgun | 93 | baikal shotgun | 60 |
shotgun tactical | 92 | sawed off shotgun | 58 |
shotgun accessory | 87 | shotgun microphone | 57 |
automatic semi shotgun | 86 | shotgun choke | 57 |
airsoft shotgun | 86 | champion shotgun | 46 |
shotgun manufacturer | 83 | stevens shotgun | 45 |
shotgun stock | 82 | shotgun part | 43 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "shotgun"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | teke (single), pushkë gjahu. (various references) | |
Arabic | بندقية الصيد. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | насилствен (extortionate, forced, forcible, violent), ловджийска пушка (fowling piece, scatter-gun). (various references) | |
Chinese | 猎枪. (various references) | |
Czech | brokovnice. (various references) | |
Danish | faeldejern (gun, gunning stick, timber compass). (various references) | |
Dutch | velwig (gun, gunning stick, timber compass). (various references) | |
Farsi | تفنگ ساچمه ای . (various references) | |
Finnish | kaatokiila (gun, gunning stick, timber compass), haulikko (fowling-piece), hauli (fowling-piece). (various references) | |
French | shotgun, timber compass, gunning stick, gun, fusil de chasse, fusil, forcé, felling wedge. (various references) | |
German | Schrotflinte (fowling piece). (various references) | |
Greek | κυνηγετικό όπλο (shot gun), σφην (gun, gunning stick, sphene 2)titanite, timber compass). (various references) | |
Hebrew | רוב" צי". (various references) | |
Hungarian | vadászpuska (fowling piece, fowling-piece, shot-gun). (various references) | |
Italian | fucile da caccia (sporting gun), compasso di direzione (gun, gunning stick, timber compass). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 霰弾銃 , 散弾銃 , シュタイナー学 (a shop, chauvinism, chemise, chocolate, Chopin, crying, displaywindow, line drive to the shortstop, liquor, mall, Schiller, Schmidt camera, Schottky diode, serial, serial printer, serialize, series, serious, serious drama, shawl, shock, shock absorber, shock theory, shocker, shocking, shockwave, shop in shop, shopping, shopping bag, shopping bag lady, shopping cart, shopping centre, shopping mall, shoran, shordarvision, shore radar television, short, short bound, short circuit, short cut, short hair, short hole, short iron, short order, short pants, short relief, short short, short skirt, short stay, short story, short time, shortcake, short-circuit appeal, shortening, short-range navigation aid, shorts, short-scale, shortstop, shot, shotgun bride, shotgun marriage, shotgun wedding, shoulder, shoulder bag, shoulder pad, shovel, show, show biz, show business, show girl, showboat, showcase, showman, showmanship, showroom, shredder, shrimp, Shroedinger, sleeping bag, snorkel, sound like a steam engine, Steiner school, stem turn in skiing, Sturm und Drang, syllable, Syria, temporary care, trace, weeping). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | さ" "じゅう, ショットガン . (various references) | |
Korean | 엽총. (various references) | |
Manx | gunn magheragh, gunn grine. (various references) | |
Norwegian | hagle (hail). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | otgunshay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | espingarda de caça (sporting gun), espingarda (gun, repeater, rifle), cunha de abate (gun, gunning stick, timber compass). (various references) | |
Russian | дробовик. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sačmara, puška (gun, piece, rifle). (various references) | |
Spanish | escopeta (gun, rifle), cuña guía (gun, gunning stick, timber compass). (various references) | |
Swedish | hagelgevär, hagelbössa, gevär (firearm, gun, rifle, rifles), fällkil (gun, gunning stick, timber compass). (various references) | |
Turkish | av tüfeği (fowling piece), çifte (double, double barelled gun, kick, kick with both hind feet). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | кулемет (machine gun, stutterer), дробовик. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "shotgun": shotgunned, shotgunner, shotgunners, shotgunning, shotguns. (additional references) | |
| |
"Shotgun" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Scotgen, shogunal, shoguni, shogunn, shotghun, showgun, sotun. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "shotgun" (pronounced shÄ"tgu'n) |
| 4 | -t g u' n | outgun. |
| 3 | -g u' n | handgun. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: gunshot, hognuts, noughts. | |
| Words within the letters "g-h-n-o-s-t-u" | |
-1 letter: hognut, nought, oughts, shogun, sought, thongs, toughs. | |
-2 letters: ghost, gouts, gusto, hongs, hunts, ought, shout, shunt, snout, sough, south, stung, thong, thous, thugs, tongs, tonus, tough, tungs, ungot. | |
-3 letters: gnus, gosh, gout, guns, gush, gust, guts, hogs, hong, hons, host, hots, hugs, hung, huns, hunt, huts, nogs, nosh, nous, nuts, onus, oust, outs. | |
| Words containing the letters "g-h-n-o-s-t-u" | |
+1 letter: gunshots, hangouts, shotguns, shouting, southing, toughens, unsought. | |
+2 letters: doughnuts, onslaught, shogunate, slungshot, southings, staghound, toughness. | |
+3 letters: beshouting, onslaughts, outfishing, outpushing, outrushing, outshaming, outshining, outwishing, shogunates, shotgunned, shotgunner, slungshots, staghounds, upshooting. | |
+4 letters: authorising, doughtiness, foxhuntings, groundsheet, groupthinks, mistouching, outblushing, outhustling, outscheming, outshooting, outshouting, pothuntings, prognathous, scouthering, shotgunners, shotgunning, toughnesses, unrighteous. | |
+5 letters: dreadnoughts, droughtiness, glutathiones, groundsheets, hematogenous, heterogenous, housesitting, meetinghouse, outthrusting, overhuntings, roughcasting, shortcutting, silhouetting, thoroughness, thoroughpins, undergrowths, upholstering. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Spoken 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
