Saturday-night special
Saturday-night special noun: an inexpensive, easily obtained handgun.
Noun
Saturday-night special (plural Saturday-night specials)
- An inexpensive, easily obtained handgun.
- Synonyms:
- junk gun, suicide special, Saturday-night pistol
- An overnight weekend train.
- A seasonal (usually October to December) sale on Saturday evening.
- A girl who can be dated easily on Saturday evenings.
- An unexpected takeover bid that gives its opponents little time to respond.
Synonyms of Saturday-night special
Forms of Saturday-night special
| plural | Saturday-night specials |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Saturday night special |
Origin of Saturday-night special
Attested from 1917, akin to Saturday-night pistol attested from 1915. Not entirely clear, but perhaps from phrases like “Saturday night pistol slaying” and “Saturday night pistol scrape” often found in early 20th century local crime reporting due to the fact that Saturday evening had been the peak time for homicides and similar crimes. Also likely to be enforced by the obsolete meaning of a cheap sale and usage of "Special" in the context of more powerful firearms like Colt Police Positive Special.
Questions about Saturday-night special
- What does Saturday-night special mean?
- Saturday-night special means an inexpensive, easily obtained handgun.
- What part of speech is Saturday-night special?
- Saturday-night special is a noun.
- What is the plural of Saturday-night special?
- The plural of Saturday-night special is Saturday-night specials.
Words near Saturday-night special in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Saturday-night special (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “Saturday-night special.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/saturday-night_special. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.