ˈscatter-gun orig. and chiefly N. Amer.
[f. scatter v. + gun n.]
1. A shot-gun.
| 1836 H. R. Howard Hist. V. A. Stewart 140, I have a choice scatter-gun. 187. G. H. Kingsley Sport & Travel v. (1900) 142, I take up my scattergun and wander away. 1891 C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 237 A ‘double-pronged scatter gun’. 1910 Blackw. Mag. Feb. 285/1 All round Muttra shooting with a scatter-gun is varied and good. 1923 J. H. Cook Fifty Years on Old Frontier i. 4 Pigeon shooting was good..for anyone who owned or could borrow a ‘scatter-gun’. 1932 ‘D. Yates’ Safe Custody ix. 198 We've thirteen men, and between us we've got six pistols and three scatter-guns. 1968 Punch 1 May 624/1 He hands his trunk to this Puerto Rican who's carrying..a sawn-off scatter-gun. 1973 R. D. Symons Where Wagon Led i. iv. 51 Once in a while one of us would pack a scatter gun and get a brace or two of prairie chicken. |
2. fig. (attrib. in quots.). Cf. scattershot s.v. scatter v. 7.
| 1952 J. Steinbeck East of Eden ii. xiv. 150 A scattergun method for dealing with unpleasant facts. 1963 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 6 Feb., Republicans agreed..to a ‘scattergun plan’. Each representative wrote the name of his choice..on a secret ballot. There were no nominations and no debate. 1974 Publishers Weekly 4 Feb. 70/1 Farson sets it all down with a scattergun assertiveness that inevitably turns up contradictions. 1980 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Aug. 913/1 Stuart Holland's scatter-gun polemic embodies many of the misconceptions which now threaten to dominate the Labour Party's attitude to Europe. |
Hence as v. intr. (fig. in quot.) and ˈscatter-gunner.
| 1968 R. M. Nixon in W. Safire Before the Fall (1975) i. vi. 72 If we scatter-gun too much we are not going to have an impact. 1969 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 8 Nov. 20/1 Two traps will be in operation and all scattergunners are invited to compete. 1980 Outdoor Life (U.S.) (Northeast ed.) Oct. 104/2 Scatter-gunners bag approximately 50 million of them each hunting season. |