🔫 A shotgun 🎯 Unfocused method 🎯 Unfocused or broad

scattergun

7.3

Not focused and trying many things at once

adjective
/ˈskætərˌɡʌn/

: disperso

His scattergun approach to problem-solving often led to confusion and wasted time.

Examples

The team's scattergun strategy in marketing resulted in a mixed response from the audience.
The net result of our present compulsory and regimented system of "education" is not truly education at all, but a scattergun, piecemeal, eyedropper method of making everyone properly adjusted, compelling them to conform to the collective.

Academic text (1994)
Using a scattergun method, she tried various techniques to learn the subject rather than sticking to one.

Synonyms

scattershot

vsscattergun

3 8.3

Covering many things in a random, unfocused way

is about applying an indiscriminate approach instead of a targeted one

Antonyms

specific

∞ 3.9

Clearly defined and exact for a particular thing or person

to direct

245 1.8

To point something like light or attention at a target

How Focused

precise

286 3.6

scattergun

7.3

indiscriminate

23 7.2

Surface Forms

scattergun positive

Morphology

scattergun = scattergun (semi-transparent) = scatter + gun

The compound structure is clear, but the adjectival sense 'indiscriminate, unfocused' is a figurative extension rather than a fully literal combination.

Etymology

Scattergun comes from scatter ('to spread') and gun ('firearm'). The adjective uses the same picture: something described as scattergun is wide and unfocused, like a gun that scatters shot, so it is not targeted but spread out.