under the gun
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Under intense pressure or stress to perform
Literally: facing a gun
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Nick has played good, solid golf under the gun to win five majors while others around him have made their mistakes.
Apart from the seclusion and pressure of being watched under a gun, they all seemed in good spirits.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
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 “under the gun” mean?
Under intense pressure or stress to perform Literally: facing a gun
Is “under the gun” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.