scattergun

See also: scatter-gun and scatter gun

English

Alternative forms

• scatter gun, scatter-gun

Etymology

From scatter +‎ gun.

Noun

scattergun (plural scatterguns)

1. A shotgun.
   • 1973 September, Gary Gillespie, “How to select a modern scattergun”, in Popular Mechanics, →ISSN, page 134:

     But in all-around use, the scattergun now ranks first across fields and forests, trap and skeet ranges.

   • 1999 December 1, Jason Manning, Gun Justice: The Unforgettable Story of Texas John Slaughter, One of the Greatest Gunfighters of the Old West‎^[1], Macmillan:

     Groundhitching the horse, he left the Winchester in the saddle boot and reached under his duster to unsling the scattergun.

   • 2013 February 21, “Relevance”, in Person of Interest, season 2, episode 16, spoken by Sam Shaw (Sarah Shahi):

     You ever have a staring contest with a fish? No eyelids. Kinda pointless, right? Like you reaching for that scattergun.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:scattergun.

Adjective

scattergun (comparative more scattergun, superlative most scattergun)

1. Unfocused in approach or topic.

   Synonyms: all over the place, scattershot

   • 2016, Darren G. Lilleker, Mark Pack, Political Marketing and the 2015 UK General Election, page 127:

     UKIP's Facebook approach was the most 'scattergun', posting a slew of national messages, presumably in the hope that something might impact locally.

   • 2017, Helen Stalford, Kathryn Hollingsworth, Stephen Gilmore, Rewriting Children's Rights Judgments:

     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.