Word.ws English Dictionary

under the gun

under the gun prepositional phrase: under great pressure to perform.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Under great pressure to perform.
    • He was under the gun to finish the project quickly.
    • I'm under the gun again / I know I was a 45-percenter then / I know I was a lot of things2013, The National, “I Need My Girl”, in Trouble Will Find Me
  2. Of, pertaining to, or in the situation of first player to act on the first round of betting.
    • James will be under the gun for the first hand of the final table.
    Synonyms:
    UTG
  3. (obsolete) Too close to be subject to artillery fire.

Synonyms of under the gun

Questions about under the gun

What does under the gun mean?
Under the gun means under great pressure to perform.
What part of speech is under the gun?
Under the gun is a prepositional phrase.

Words near under the gun in the dictionary

  1. under the carpet
  2. under the cosh
  3. under the counter
  4. under the covers
  5. under the fist of
  6. under the gun
  7. under the hammer
  8. under the hood
  9. under the illusion
  10. under the impression
  11. under the influence

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: under the gun (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-under the gun.ogg.

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