SHOTGUN WEDDING Definition & Meaning

View synonyms for

shotgun wedding

Or shotgun marriage

noun

a wedding occasioned or precipitated by pregnancy.
Informal.��a compromise, merger, accord, etc., occasioned by necessity.
The coalition government was obviously a shotgun wedding.

shotgun wedding

noun

informal��a wedding into which one or both partners are coerced, usually because the woman is pregnant

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of shotgun wedding¹

An Americanism dating back to 1925–30

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Idioms and Phrases

An agreement or compromise made through necessity, as in Since neither side won a majority, the coalition government was obviously a shotgun wedding. This expression alludes to a marriage precipitated by a woman's pregnancy, causing her father to point a literal or figurative gun at the responsible man's head. Its figurative use dates from the mid-1900s.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The midnight announcement by the leaders of both parties was made in sombre tones and had the air of a shotgun wedding.

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Taiwan's two main opposition parties appeared to be on the brink of announcing their shotgun wedding - the leader of one would run for president in January's election; the leader of the other would be his running mate.

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The “Shotgun Wedding” star, 50, and Miss World America pageant queen, 29, announced they were expecting their first baby together in a joint Instagram post on Monday.

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Instead, what modern viewers mostly get are pale, labored imitations — the frenetic Jennifer Lopez-Josh Duhamel caper “Shotgun Wedding,” the hollow-core Ana de Armas-Chris Evans vehicle “Ghosted.”

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He departed the comedy “Shotgun Wedding” that he was shooting with Jennifer Lopez, left the Paramount+ series “The Offer,” about the making of “The Godfather,” and was dropped by his agency, WME.

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shotgun microphone shot heard round the world

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