Word.ws English Dictionary

hired guns

hired guns is the plural of hired gun.

Meaning of hired gun

Noun

hired gun (plural hired guns)

  1. A person who is employed as an armed guard, enforcer, or mercenary and who is prepared to use gunplay or similar violent methods in order to assert the interests of their employer.
    • The hired guns, who protect diplomats, dignitaries and businesspeople, tear through the streets of the capital in convoys of armored SUVs.2008 December 9, Rania Abouzeid, “Iraqis Welcome Blackwater Indictments”, in Time
    Synonyms:
    gunfighter
  2. (broadly, idiomatic) A person who is employed to advance the interests of their employer, especially in a vigorous manner using such methods as political lobbying, legal advocacy, or persuasion.
    • [O]ne of Gore's senior advisers, top-tier lobbyist Peter Knight, is a hired gun for pharmaceuticals giant Schering-Plough.1999 November 22, Viveca Novak, “The Claritin Case”, in Time

Questions about hired guns

What is hired guns the plural of?
Hired guns is the plural of hired gun.

Words near hired guns in the dictionary

  1. hire system
  2. hireable
  3. hireage
  4. hired
  5. hired gun
  6. hired guns
  7. hired hand
  8. hired hands
  9. hired muscle
  10. hired muscles
  11. hired out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hired guns (page history and authors); hired gun (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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