shotgun

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A 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.”

   “You can't talk to a man / With a shotgun in his hand”

   “An unusual custom is followed at Llangennith, when shotguns are fired at a wedding - to scare off evil spirits from the newlyweds.”

2. (countable, slang, uncountable)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.

   “I call shotgun!”

   “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.”

3. (Southern-US, US, countable, especially, uncountable)A 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.”

4. (countable, uncountable)An offensive formation in which the quarterback receives the snap at a distance behind the center, often with a running back set to one or both sides of him.
5. (attributive, countable, uncountable)Relating to shotguns, either in a present or past sense.

   “shotgun cartridges”

   “shotgun seat”

6. (attributive, countable, uncountable)Relating to the threat of force or dubious means.

   “shotgun wedding”

   “shotgun diplomacy”

7. (attributive, countable, uncountable)Relating to the use of numerous, diverse or indiscriminate means to achieve a particular result.

   “shotgun marketing”

   “shotgun approach”

verb

1. (slang)To inhale from a pipe or other smoking device, followed shortly by an exhalation into someone else’s mouth.

   “High as fuck, I light it up / Got pre-rolls for the whole month / She don't smoke but when I roll one / We shotgun the whole blunt”

2. (informal, transitive)To verbally lay claim to (something)

   “I got a day off because I shotgunned it.”

3. (transitive)To hit the ball directly back at the pitcher.
4. (US, slang)To rapidly drink a beverage from a can by making a hole in the bottom of the can, placing the hole above one's mouth, and opening the top.
5. (US, slang)To send out many (requests, answers to a question, etc), especially in the hope that one obtains a positive result (i.e. reveals useful information, is correct, etc), in the manner of a shotgun firing many balls of shot such that one may hit a target.

   “An actual physical piece of paper shows that you're not just shotgunning out queries to every agent on the planet.”

   “Science fiction writers are “shotgunning ideas” through their works, he said, and people tend to recall the pellets that hit the target.”

   “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.”

6. (slang)To employ the technique of shotgun debugging.

   “Understand the problem before fixing it. About the only scenario where shotgunning is useful is if there is a shorted IC and you cannot tell which one it is.”