shotgun shell
7
3.8
- noun
- /ˈʃɑtˌɡʌn ʃɛl/
- Specialized
:
cartucho de escopeta
- The hunter packed several shotgun shells before heading into the forest for the weekend.
- a 12-gauge shotgun shell
- gauge shotgun shells
- empty shotgun shells
He may be hiding shotgun shells or just bullets.
- He may be hiding shotgun shells or just bullets.
- Like just pure brass cased shotgun shells, which have their own problems.
- He may be hiding shotgun shells or just boots.
- Farmers have done this in blueberry crops and found that those those dry shell shotgun shells, they're intended to scare the birds away.
- That's what I really got scared because it told me that that shotgun shell was so close to me it could have blown my head off, you know?
Examples
-
Bugsy sits at a kitchen table littered with shotgun shells.
Fiction book (1991) -
Phelan produced two boxes of shotgun shells and threw them into a canvas bag with the wooden case Austin had been carrying.
Fiction book (1999) -
Apparently, I did have an actual shotgun shell in there.
-
We got to get us some shotgun shells.
-
You still got those shotgun shells?
-
Give me some shotgun shells.
-
Get me all the shotgun shells you can, 12-gauge.
-
I found some of Vincent's shotgun shells right near where you had your accident.
-
Dad loaded his own shotgun shells, so he had lots of lead shot available and the heavy cloth bags in which to put it.
Blog text (6) -
The 12-gauge and 20-gauge shotgun shells should be here by Thursday.
Synonyms
387
7.2
A single bullet or shell used in a gun
24
4.7
A metal or plastic case that holds a bullet and powder for a gun
1
5.9
A small cartridge for a shotgun that holds many small pellets or one slug
How Powerful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: a 'shell' (a cartridge/casing/projectile) specified as belonging to a 'shotgun' yields a cartridge designed for a shotgun (containing shot). This noun+noun type-denoting pattern is a common, transparent compounding process cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
The compound noun shotgun shell comes from the metal shell, a small case that holds many tiny round shot, called 'pellets', used in a shotgun. When the shell is fired the case breaks and the pellets scatter, so the name means a case that fires many small pellets at once.