Shotgun Wedding Definition & Meaning

American

British

Idioms

Etymology

Examples

Synonyms shotgun wedding American Or shotgun marriage

noun

1. a wedding occasioned or precipitated by pregnancy.

2. Informal. a compromise, merger, accord, etc., occasioned by necessity.

   The coalition government was obviously a shotgun wedding.

shotgun wedding British

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Shotgun wedding Idioms

1. 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.

Etymology

Origin of shotgun wedding

An Americanism dating back to 1925–30

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

From BBC

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.

From BBC

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.

From Los Angeles Times

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.”

From New York Times

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.

From Seattle Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.