Word.ws English Dictionary

scattergun

scattergun noun: synonym of shotgun.

Noun

scattergun (plural scatterguns)

  1. (informal) Synonym of shotgun.
    • But in all-around use, the scattergun now ranks first across fields and forests, trap and skeet ranges.1973 September, Gary Gillespie, “How to select a modern scattergun”, in Popular Mechanics, →ISSN, page 134
    • Groundhitching the horse, he left the Winchester in the saddle boot and reached under his duster to unsling the scattergun.1999 December 1, Jason Manning, Gun Justice: The Unforgettable Story of Texas John Slaughter, One of the Greatest Gunfighters of the Old West, Macmillan
    Synonyms:
    shotgun

Adjective

scattergun (comparative more scattergun, superlative most scattergun)

  1. Unfocused in approach or topic.
    • UKIP's Facebook approach was the most 'scattergun', posting a slew of national messages, presumably in the hope that something might impact locally.2016, Darren G. Lilleker, Mark Pack, Political Marketing and the 2015 UK General Election, page 127
    • While the use of such language in judicial reasoning is not uncommon amongst the more senior Pakistani courts, the acceptance of all pleaded grounds, no matter how 'scattergun' the approach, certainly is.2017, Helen Stalford, Kathryn Hollingsworth, Stephen Gilmore, Rewriting Children's Rights Judgments

Synonyms of scattergun

Forms of scattergun

Noun
pluralscatterguns
alternative formscatter gun
alternative formscatter-gun
Adjective
comparativemore scattergun
superlativemost scattergun

Origin of scattergun

From scatter + gun.

Questions about scattergun

What does scattergun mean?
Scattergun means synonym of shotgun.
What part of speech is scattergun?
Scattergun can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of scattergun?
The plural of scattergun is scatterguns.

Words near scattergun in the dictionary

  1. scattergoods
  2. scattergram
  3. scattergrams
  4. scattergraph
  5. scattergraphs
  6. scattergun
  7. scatterguns
  8. scatterhoard
  9. scatterhoarded
  10. scatterhoarder
  11. scatterhoarders

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scattergun (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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Cite this entry: “scattergun.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scattergun. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.