Dictionary

shotgun marriage en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From shotgun + marriage; compare shotgun wedding.

Meanings

1. (countable) A marriage beginning with (or resulting from) a shotgun wedding.
   • Others explained that a forced marriage was likely to end in an early divorce, so that the child would suffer more in a shotgun marriage than if born out of wedlock. 1996, George A. Akerlof et al., “An Analysis of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing in the United States” (journal article), reproduced in Explorations in Pragmatic Economics: Selected Papers of George A. Akerlof, Oxford University Press (2005), ISBN 978-19-925391-3, page 146
   • It is essential for us to win back the rights of teenagers to prevent the state from using […] the denial of reproductive control to channel young women into shotgun marriages, into unwanted familial responsibilities and into dead end streets. 1983 February 5, Rhonda Copelon, quotee, “Roe v. Wade: The Challenge of the Next Decade”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 28, page 5:
2. (countable) A shotgun wedding itself.
3. (uncountable) Such marriages, or such weddings, taken collectively.
4. (countable, uncountable) Used figuratively.

Forms