Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

shotgun wedding

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.77 in modern English

Syllables: shot-gun wed-ding
IPA

24

Scrabble Score

14

Letters

3

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A wedding in which the bride is already pregnant.

Slang

noun

A wedding made in haste or under duress.

Slang

noun

Any similarly reputedly forced partnership, between people, organizations, components, or concepts.

Slang

Example Sentences

"If Red Skelton's joke can still elicit laughs, it is only because there is a minority who can still remember a shotgun wedding and even recall the understandings that lay behind that insistence, now seeming quaint, that a couple sleeping together should really be married."
"But all this fails when we try to have a shotgun wedding between the two great theories of nature, relativity and quantum theory."

Etymology

From the implication that the groom was forced to the altar by shotgun-wielding relatives of the bride.

Usage

Slang

Inflected Forms

shotgun weddings (plural)

Phrases

shotgun marriage white wedding grass widow

Frequently Paired Words

shotgun marriage white wedding grass widow

Questions

What does shotgun wedding mean?: A wedding in which the bride is already pregnant.
Where does shotgun wedding come from?: From the implication that the groom was forced to the altar by shotgun-wielding relatives of the bride.

How to pronounce shotgun wedding

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