▪ I. ˈpot-ˌshot, n.1
[pot n.1]
1. A shot taken at game merely for the purpose of filling the pot for a meal, without regard to skill or the rules of sport (cf. pot-hunter 2), and so from any position or point of advantage. Hence transf. A shot aimed at a person or animal that happens to be within easy reach, without giving any chance of self-defence; e.g. at an enemy from ambush. Also, a random blow or punch.
| 1858 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. I. xxxiii. 128 The volunteer corps began ‘to take pot shots at them at nine or ten yards’. Ibid., ‘Pot shots’..when a man..shoots at partridges in a crowd upon the ground, in a way which shows a simple desire to kill for the pot. 1860 Russell Diary India I. xvii. 265 Some dozens of the enemy..sneak along the road..in order to get a pot-shot at him. 1877 M. Prior in Daily News 1 Oct. 6/3 While..looking through my telescope, a Russian sentry took a steady pot shot at us, and I had the unpleasant satisfaction of hearing the bullet flatten itself against a stone not far ahead. 1896 Tablet 22 Feb. 290, I was lying by my horse, taking pot-shots when I could get the chance. 1907 C. E. Mulford Bar-20 iii. 31 A pot shot at Hopalong sent that gentleman's rifle hurtling to the ground. 1938 Sun (Baltimore) 28 Jan. 1/5 He pleaded guilty to firing two ‘pot’ shots into the back of a loaded school bus. 1950 J. Dempsey Championship Fighting x. 49 A pot-shot with your right. 1965 C. D. Eby Siege of Alcázar (1966) iii. 70 A drunken miliciano..took a pot shot at him. 1979 ‘A. Blaisdell’ No Villain need Be iii. 50 Some nut..taking potshots at couples in cars. |
2. fig. a. U.S. A piece of criticism or verbal attack, freq. one which is random or opportunistic. b. A random attempt.
| 1926 Forum (N.Y.) Nov. 757 But I don't think much of the pot-shot method of refutation. 1927 Christian Century 7 July 828 Let him take lusty potshots, though, at some poor, prostrate ghost of bygone years, and he is hailed as brilliant, erudite, and—curiously—daring! 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §179/2 Potshot, shot in the dark, a wild guess. 1943 Commonweal 30 Apr. 46 It is not just that Mr. Willkie is taking pot⁓shots at the British Empire—and please let's not swell up with anti-British self-righteousness. 1949 Kenyon Rev. XI. 582 It was a time when ‘the intellect was at the tips of the senses’ and so on. Admittedly these are literary phrases, therefore a kind of pot shot at the real point, but they seem to me good ones. 1955 Newsweek 7 Mar. 71 The tobacco industry is leaving no radioisotope unturned to counter medical potshots at its product and to bolster sales. 1955 Times 20 June 3/4 Thus certain canvases are both pot-shots at the subject and pot-shots at pictures. 1971 A. & A. Silverman Case against having Children vi. 189 All we have done here is to take potshots at the Myth of the Working Mother. |
Hence ˈpot-shot v. trans. and intr., to take a pot-shot at (a target), to take pot-shots; ˈpot-shotter; ˈpot-shotting ppl. a. and vbl. n.
| 1904 P. Fountain Gt. North-West iv. 27 The breech⁓loader is the weapon of the dandy pot-shotter. 1918 E. Pound Let. 16 Dec. (1971) 143 And what the deuce of your punctuation?.. How much deliberate, and therefore to be taken (by me) with studious meticulousness?? How much the fine careless rapture and therefore to be pot-shotted at until it assumes an wholly demonstrable or more obvious rightness???? 1923 Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War II. 60 Snipers were forbidden to pot⁓shot until they could see a man's head. 1927 Amer. Speech III. 29 Right hand pot-shotters. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §394/3 Careless person,..potshotter. Ibid. 435/7 Potshotter, one who shoots without taking aim. 1943 I. Wolfert Battle for Solomons v. 63 However, it is likely that the battle which started as an old-fashioned ‘better 'ole’ kind of war has now got even more old-fashioned and become a ruthless, tracking, potshotting, Indian kind of war. 1947 Harlow & Black Pract. Public Relations 179 Competing companies will make it their business to ‘pot-shot’ both purchasing and supplying organizations. 1950 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 21 What is really disturbing is the constant potshotting of the administrative departments from Capitol Hill. 1954 M. Cowley Lit. Situation x. 178 At last he is likely to decide that the expenses are beyond his powers of computation; he will simply pot-shot at them, hoping that his guess won't be implausible. 1954 Time 28 June 36/3 After six years of marriage and nearly five of potshotting between their armed camps, they braced for the showdown. 1966 H. Waugh Pure Poison vi. 41 She goes for the lunatic theory—like a sniper just potshotting anyone. 1970 National Rev. (U.S.) 30 June 685/2 Like Tocqueville, Tyrmand potshots, hit and miss, the trivial and mundane, filling space between profound insights. |
▪ II. † ˈpot-shot, -ˌshotten, a. (n.2) Obs.
[f. pot n.1 + shot ppl. a. (and n.)]
‘Shot’ or overpowered by drink; intoxicated.
| 1629 Wadsworth Pilgr. vi. 59 Edmunds..being pot⁓shotten and perceiuing the Moone to shine bright through the windowes, said with a loud voyce, that the holy Ghost was descended. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Navy Land Ships Wks. i. 83/1 When any of them are wounded, Pot-shot, Jug-bitten, or Cup-shaken. a 1632 T. Taylor God's Judgem. ii. vii. (1642) 108 A..Drunkard being Pot-shot and in his Cups. |
B. as n. a. A drunken person, a drunkard. b. Drunkenness.
| 1617 R. Brathwait (title) A Solemne Ioviall Disputation..Which..Bacchus..hath publikely expounded to his most approved and improved Fellow Pot-shots. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Taylors Trav. Wks. iii. 78/1 In which kind of potshot our English are growne such stout Proficients, that some of them dares bandy and contend with the Dutch. |