Word.ws English Dictionary

putting a gun to someone's head

putting a gun to someone's head is the present participle and gerund 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

Questions about putting a gun to someone's head

What is putting a gun to someone's head the present participle and gerund of?
Putting a gun to someone's head is the present participle and gerund of put a gun to someone's head.

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

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putting 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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