Word.ws English Dictionary

put a gun to someone's head

put a gun to someone's head verb: to compel someone (to do something); to create a situation in which someone has no alternative course of action.

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
    • "[T]o say the industry hasn't changed is to ignore reality," Yerrid said. "Now, they changed because we put a gun to their head, not because they're nice people and wanted to change."2004 September 23, Carol D. Leonnig, “Tobacco Industry Admits Mistakes”, in Washington Post, retrieved 27 Nov 2018

Forms of put a gun to someone's head

third-person singular presentputs a gun to someone's head
present participleputting a gun to someone's head
past participleput a gun to someone's head
pastput a gun to someone's head
alternative formhold a gun to someone's head

Questions about put a gun to someone's head

What does put a gun to someone's head mean?
Put a gun to someone's head means to compel someone (to do something); to create a situation in which someone has no alternative course of action.
What part of speech is put a gun to someone's head?
Put a gun to someone's head is a verb.
What is the past tense of put a gun to someone's head?
The past tense of put a gun to someone's head is put a gun to someone's head.

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

  1. put a crimp in
  2. put a damper on
  3. put a dent in the universe
  4. put a finger to the wind
  5. put a foot wrong
  6. put a gun to someone's head
  7. put a hat on a hat
  8. put a hurt on
  9. put a lid on
  10. put a lid on it
  11. put a name to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-put a gun to someone's head.ogg.

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