Word.ws English Dictionary

hold a gun to someone's head

hold a gun to someone's head is the alternative form of put a gun to someone's head.

Meaning of put a gun to someone's head

Verb

put a gun to someone's head (third-person singular simple present puts a gun to someone's head, present participle putting a gun to someone's head, simple past and past participle put a gun to someone's head)

  1. (idiomatic) To compel someone (to do something); to create a situation in which someone has no alternative course of action.
    • Richard Rosenbaum had deferred to Mr. D'Amato in leading the Dole effort in the state, but Mr. D'Amato delayed organizing it until, as Westchester County legislator Tim Carey put it, "Dole put a gun to his head."1988 February 28, “The Region: D'Amato Strays, Willfully, From New York Party Line”, in New York Times, retrieved 27 Nov 2018

Forms of hold a gun to someone's head

third-person singular presentholds a gun to someone's head
present participleholding a gun to someone's head
past participleheld a gun to someone's head
pastheld a gun to someone's head

Questions about hold a gun to someone's head

What is hold a gun to someone's head the alternative form of?
Hold a gun to someone's head is the alternative form of put a gun to someone's head.

Words near hold a gun to someone's head in the dictionary

  1. hold
  2. Hold 'em
  3. hold a candle
  4. hold a candle for
  5. hold a grudge
  6. hold a gun to someone's head
  7. hold a light
  8. hold a mirror to
  9. hold a mirror up to
  10. hold a torch for
  11. hold against

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hold a gun to someone's head (page history and authors); put a gun to someone's head (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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