potshot

[ pot-shot ]
See synonyms for potshot on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a shot fired at game merely for food, with little regard to skill or the rules of sport.

  2. a shot at an animal or person within easy range, as from ambush.

  1. a casual or aimless shot.

  2. a random or incidental criticism: to take a potshot at military spending in a speech on taxation.

verb (used without object),pot·shot or pot·shot·ted, pot·shot·ting.
  1. to fire or aim potshots: critics potshotting at the administration.

Origin of potshot

1
First recorded in 1855–60; pot1 + shot1

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use potshot in a sentence

  • No; he had stalked his small bird till he got within thirty yards of the bough where it was perched, and taken a steady pot-shot.

    Dr. Jolliffe's Boys | Lewis Hough
  • "They're droppin' back to pot-shot us," Blackburn said to Shorty.

    The Trail Horde | Charles Alden Seltzer
  • He's probably scared some German sympathizer may take a pot shot at him for filling these contracts.

    The Gray Mask | Wadsworth Camp
  • He's there in the back room, I reckon, but he's damn liable to take a pot shot at you when you go in.

    Bob Hampton of Placer | Randall Parrish
  • Some men in the mob had rifles and now and then a pot-shot would be taken at the fleeing figure.

    The Centralia Conspiracy | Ralph Chaplin

British Dictionary definitions for pot shot

pot shot

noun
  1. a chance shot taken casually, hastily, or without careful aim

  2. a shot fired to kill game in disregard of the rules of sport

  1. a shot fired at quarry within easy range, often from an ambush

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012