gun to your head

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

forced to make a difficult decision

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

bị buộc phải đưa ra một quyết định khó khăn

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a firearm pressed against one's head
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

I'd rather not choose, but put a gun to your head, what's your favorite book?

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “gun to your head” mean?

forced to make a difficult decision Literally: a firearm pressed against one's head

Is “gun to your head” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.