lone gunman
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.22 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An individual person who acts on his or her own initiative, without partners, especially one who has sole responsibility for doing something questionable, confidential, or iniquitous.
Example Sentences
- "He continues, "So when someone blows the whistle, the hospital has to start looking for a scapegoat. The hospital looks for the lone gunman—the individual, acting alone, acting counter to his training, who, through a gross act of incompetence . . . .""
- "Trial lawyers, always a colorful and eclectic bunch. . . . Most were lone gunmen too eccentric to keep much of a staff."
- "The Wilson family had been sorely conflicted because each member had gone off in his or her own direction, thinking that they were all lone gunmen."
Etymology
From the Warren Commission's lone gunman theory, that the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy was the work of a single individual, subsequently applied to numerous other political assassinations and shootings.