What is shotgun?
What is shotgun?
- 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.