under the gun
6
7.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
bajo presión
- With the deadline approaching, the team was under the gun to complete the project.
- under the gun here
- now under the gun
- get under the gun
And if it's valuable for the your success to practice being under the gun and then you should schedule that John, then he's smart.
- And if it's valuable for the your success to practice being under the gun and then you should schedule that John, then he's smart.
- There's something about being under the gun and and knowing that you really don't have the option to make a lot of mistakes or second guess yourself.
Examples
-
Look, Connie, I know we've been under the gun lately, you know, it's just, uh, we've gotta get through this bullshit and we'll be able to live like people again.
-
There's something about being under the gun and and knowing that you really don't have the option to make a lot of mistakes or second guess yourself.
-
I know it's not always like that and I know a lot of film work is very much under the gun and resource light.
-
Honey, I'm under the gun here.
-
They were under the gun to make it.
-
You've been under the gun ever since this happened.
Fiction book (1990) -
Always she meets you under the gun, the taxi meter running, half a dozen plates up in the air.
Fiction book (1999) -
Basically, they're under the gun, they're under fire, and they build up skills.
-
I think the debugger thing is debatable: when you're under the gun to finish a project, it's a useful tool to have: I use it all the time.
Blog text (3) -
But they're under the gun to crank out story after story, so they don't have the time or energy to understand why your behavioral targeting technology is mathematically better than your five competitors.
Blog text (2)
Synonyms
24
2.8
People feel very tense and worried because many difficult things are happening
3
6.9
Feeling nervous and excited, ready to start
Antonyms
How Pressured
37
3.9
2
5.1
- Informal
6
7.4
∞
3.1
310
3.6
735
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
under + the + gun
The meaning 'in a state of intense pressure' can be partly inferred because 'under' signals being subjected to something and 'gun' evokes threat, so the phrase extends the literal meanings metaphorically. Because the pressure sense depends on figurative threat imagery rather than a directly compositional pattern, it is not fully predictable for learners without exposure, making it only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrase under the gun may come from the image of someone with a gun pointed at you, forcing you to act quickly. So it now means 'under pressure' or 'having to finish something fast'.