Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use shotgun in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Shotgun means a gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge. Example: “The farmer's son brought home a Thanksgiving turkey from the wild that he killed with his shotgun.”

Examples of shotgun by meaning

nounA gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge.

  • The farmer's son brought home a Thanksgiving turkey from the wild that he killed with his shotgun.
  • An unusual custom is followed at Llangennith, when shotguns are fired at a wedding - to scare off evil spirits from the newlyweds.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 258

nounThe front passenger seat in a vehicle, next to the driver; so called because the position of the shotgun-armed guard on...

  • I call shotgun!
  • We rode our bikes to it this morning—me, two of my brothers, four other neighborhood kids who were ready to be baptized, plus my father and some other neighborhood adults riding shotgun.1993, Octavia Butler, chapter 2, in The Parable of the Sower

nounA one-story dwelling with no hallways or corridors, with the rooms arranged in a straight line.

  • Elvis Presley was born in a two-bedroom shotgun in Tupelo, Mississippi.

verbTo verbally lay claim to (something).

  • I got a day off because I shotgunned it.

verbTo send out many (requests, answers to a question, etc), especially in the hope that one obtains a positive result...

  • An actual physical piece of paper shows that you're not just shotgunning out queries to every agent on the planet.2009, Writing Fiction For Dummies, →ISBN
  • Science fiction writers are “shotgunning ideas” through their works, he said, and people tend to recall the pellets that hit the target.2011 December 6, John Schwartz, “Out of a Writer’s Imagination Came an Interactive World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  • It's like they are on a generic mailing list and some photographer is just shotgunning cards out into the world with no thought as to who they are actually going to.2013, Zack Arias, Photography Q&A: Real Questions, Real Answers, page 197

verbTo employ the technique of shotgun debugging.

  • About the only scenario where shotgunning is useful is if there is a shorted IC and you cannot tell which one it is.1998, Stuart Ball, Debugging Embedded Microprocessor Systems, page 71

More sentences with shotgun

  • I raced him to the car, but he was there first, so he got to ride shotgun.From the entry race
  • The bank robbers' handloaded shotgun shells used rock salt as the shot.From the entry shot
  • She was hit in the face with the butt of a shotgun.From the entry butt
  • When both kids want to ride shotgun with Mom, they’ll just have to take turns.From the entry ride shotgun
  • An efficient rifle or shotgun can harvest a deer for venison.From the entry harvest
  • The sawed-off shotgun was illegal because its shorter barrel made it too easy to conceal.From the entry sawed-off
  • She seems to take the shotgun approach to holiday shopping, buying many smaller, generic gifts for everybody.From the entry shotgun approach
  • I grew up in the country with a 12-gauge shotgun.From the entry country
  • The G-men raiding the speakeasy were equipped with .45 automatics, while the local policemen were carrying revolvers and shotguns.From the entry automatic
  • He loaded the shotgun with two rounds of double-ought buck.From the entry buck
  • A rifle has more precise aim than a shotgun.From the entry aim
  • He attended the meeting to ride shotgun for the sales team, in case anyone had a technical question.From the entry ride shotgun
  • I won't have the government instituting gun control! They can have my shotgun when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.From the entry from my cold, dead hands
  • Down in Florida, they shoot this category using four pistols and a shotgun.2023 January 19, The Outlaw Travis James, “Cowboy Action Shooting Categories”, in Action Shooting Network. From the entry string
  • When you get knocked down by a single pump shotgun shot, you'll be one-pumped.[2020 November 28, Gökhan Çakır, “Common Fortnite terms and their meanings”, in Dot Esports, archived from the original on 21 May 2023. From the entry one-pump
  • How the lawkeeping of the future will be about statistics, not shotguns.2016, Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Bands of Mourning, New York, N.Y.: Tor, →ISBN, page 183. From the entry lawkeeping
  • Another variation on the multiple barrel shotgun is the vierling, which is the German word for quadruplet.2015, Robert A. Sadowski, Gun Trader's Guide to Shotguns: A Comprehensive, Fully Illustrated Reference for Modern Shotguns with Current…. From the entry vierling
  • Lamont jammed the brakes and reached down by the shotgun seat, grabbing a cherry top.2015, James Patterson, Truth or Die, page 170. From the entry cherry top
  • Although, I'm just as interested in the Scout's new back-critting shotgun.2014, Phil Savage, Team Fortress 2's 'Love and War' update out now, PC Gamer. From the entry crit
  • While Wyatt dismounted and aimed his shotgun at Brocius, the rest of his posse retreated.2013, Andrew C. Isenberg, Wyatt Earp: A Vigilante Life, Hill and Wang, →ISBN, page 165. From the entry posse
  • Digger lunged past me, his shotgun arm extended down the ladderway.2012, Richard Marcinko, John Weisman, Detachment Bravo, page 363. From the entry ladderway
  • Her skull had been shattered by a shotgun blast at close range.2010, Kathryn Casey, Shattered: The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder, back cover. From the entry Belinda
  • One wag has already named the offspring of this shotgun wedding: romaction.2010 July 6, “How movies became love, camera, action”, in The Sydney Morning Herald. From the entry romaction
  • In the end, the greaseball is returned to his shotgun wedding.2010, Andrew Schanie, Movie Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder and Mayhem in the Film Industry. From the entry ugmo
  • When Kiley presented Blackpool with the custom shotgun, he said, “This must′ve cost a bomb.”2009, Matthew Vierling, The Blizzard, page 133. From the entry bomb
  • In his right hand was a pump shotgun, in his left her Glock 23.2007, Greg Iles, True Evil, Simon and Schuster, page 279. From the entry glock
  • I asked my sister Jeanette if she wanted to shoot the 12 ga. shotgun.2006, Daniel D. Scherschel, Maple Grove, page 81. From the entry kick
  • Their dad eventually, several days later, had to run the detective off with a shotgun.1983 December 10, Jay, “Who Are The Real Victimizers?”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 21, page 16. From the entry run off
  • Those starter homes came in all kinds over the years: mill worker’s cottages, shotgun homes, bungalows, ramblers, split-levels, two-bedroom tract homes.2022 September 25, “Whatever Happened to the Starter Home?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry starter home
  • Next game, he'll go for the shotgun.2021 June 10, Cecilia D'Anastasio, “How Roblox Became a Playground for Virtual Fascists”, in Wired. From the entry wack

Meaning of shotgun

  1. noun A gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge.
  2. noun The front passenger seat in a vehicle, next to the driver; so called because the position of the shotgun-armed guard on a horse-drawn stage-coach, wagon train, or gold transport was next to the driver on a forward-mounted bench seat. Can also be used in situations of claiming other resources such as bedrooms.
  3. noun A one-story dwelling with no hallways or corridors, with the rooms arranged in a straight line.

Full definition of shotgun

Questions about shotgun in a sentence

How do you use shotgun in a sentence?
Shotgun is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The farmer's son brought home a Thanksgiving turkey from the wild that he killed with his shotgun.”
What is a short sentence with shotgun?
“I call shotgun!”
What does shotgun mean?
Shotgun means a gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shotgun (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use shotgun in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/shotgun. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.