| 释义 |
shot-gun, ˈshotgun orig. U.S.
1. a. A smooth-bore gun (fowling-piece) used for firing small-shot, as distinguished from a rifle for firing a bullet.
1828J. Hall Lett. fr. West 86 Luck's like a shot-gun, mighty uncertain. 1835W. Irving Tour Prairies xi. 86 The lads of the West holding ‘shot-guns’, as they call them, in great contempt, thinking..the rifle the only fire-arm worthy of a hunter. 1892Greener Breech-Loader 220 The sportsmanlike use of the shot-gun.
b. ellipt. for (a) a shotgun building (sense 3 b below); (b) = shotgun formation (U.S. Football), sense 2 below.
1945B. A. Botkin Lay my Burden Down 98 They had to go out and live in sod houses and little old boxed shotguns and turn their Negroes loose. 1966[see shotgun formation below]. 1976Time 19 Jan. 43 Staubach's talent is throwing from the shotgun. 1977New Yorker 10 Oct. 178/2 Buckley, operating from the shotgun, threw some forty, of which some twenty were valid.
2. attrib. as shotgun barrel; shotgun formation U.S. Football (see quot. 1966); also fig.; shotgun marriage orig. U.S. = shotgun wedding below; also fig.; shotgun microphone (or colloq. mike), a highly directional microphone with a long barrel that is pointed at a distant source of sound; shotgun prescription Med. slang, a prescription containing a great number of drugs of various properties; shotgun wedding orig. U.S., a wedding made in haste or under duress by reason of the bride's pregnancy; also fig.
1892Greener Breech-Loader 8 The strain to which a *shot⁓gun barrel is ordinarily subjected.
[1966Rote & Winter Lang. of Pro Football iii. 137 Shotgun, offensive formation where quarterback sets four or five yards behind center with other backfield men split out as flankers or slot backs; an offensive formation designed to facilitate sending out as many pass receivers as possible while passer is in safer position to throw.] 1967Wall St. Jrnl. (Eastern ed.) 30 Jan. 8/5 Mr. Hornung's argument [that his accomplishments consituted educational, artistic, scientific and civic achievements] constitutes ‘a *shotgun formation’, the court said. 1972J. Mosedale Football vi. 91 Hickey installed the shotgun formation, putting the quarterback at tailback where he could pass or run.
1929E. W. Howe Plain People xxix. 267 Two people cordially disliked me for years because I thought it best to mention very briefly and respectfully their *shot gun marriage. 1958Manch. Guardian 22 Mar. 4/6 There were references to..the possible shotgun marriage of the ‘Daily Herald’ and the ‘News Chronicle’. 1973‘H. Carmichael’ Too Late for Tears xv. 179 Shot-gun marriages went out with the advent of the Pill.
1968J. M. Ullman Lady on Fire (1969) viii. 111 Even if they walked around Curley..could pick up the conversation with a *shotgun microphone. The device had a range of several hundred feet. 1972Jrnl. Social Psychol. LXXXVI. 30 A shotgun microphone was located to one side of the group to record the verbal interactions. 1978T. Gifford Glendower Legacy (1979) 187 We used that miserable shotgun mike and believe me, Brennan was watching television and sneezing.
1891Century Dict., *Shotgun prescription. 1898Syd. Soc. Lex. 1913Times 13 Aug. 4/4 The old ‘shotgun’ prescriptions so justly condemned by modern physicians.
1927S. Lewis Elmer Gantry ix. 134 There were, in those parts and those days, not infrequent ceremonies known as ‘*shotgun weddings’. 1946Sun (Baltimore) 29 Oct. 1/1 Charges that the veto system was a ‘shotgun wedding’ forced upon the small nations. 1974E. Huxley Gallipot Eyes (1976) 61 She can't have been more than fourteen when she married. A shot-gun wedding, clearly.
3. a. Passing into adj. Made or done hastily or under pressure of necessity.
1937Sun (Baltimore) 18 Aug. 8/2 Shotgun legislation... Measures pushed through in a last-hour rush. 1962Economist 7 Apr. 73/1 Mr Sandys's shot-gun reorganisation of the aircraft industry. 1977Observer 13 Mar. 13/2 By the end of last year, 464 men had been forced to quit, 74 after formal proceedings, the remainder in shotgun resignations.
b. Designating a house or other building with rooms set in a line on either side of a long central hallway. U.S.
1938J. Stuart Beyond Dark Hills vi. 156 Their faces wore the blank expression of the Armco plant's shotgun dwelling houses. 1944T. D. Clark Pills, Petticoats & Plows iii. 56 There was no wiser spot on earth than the porches which jutted out from the long shotgun buildings. 1950Penguin New Writing XL. 67 Your Riverbottom Nigras lived in little shotgun houses. 1964Amer. Folk Music Occasional i. 92 De Ole souf unroll... Dog-trots and shotgun shantys. 1974Times 14 Jan. 12/3 The American South is still unmistakably southern..grits at breakfast, blacks living in shotgun shacks.
c. quasi-adv. to ride shotgun: see ride v. 1 m. |
