One-shot

adj, noun, verb, slang

adj, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A television program, film, or comic book that is not part of a series.

    "And with the added bonuses of color and videotape coupled with the disadvantages of higher production costs, a lot of syndie producers forsook weekly series in favor of one-shot specials — and it didn't take long for the airwaves to become thick with one-shots."

  2. 2
    A cinematographic shot of a person talking to camera; a talking head.

    "The smaller frame means that Hill uses a lot of tight one-shots, mixed in with more expressive images like an endless sea of skaters fleeing from cops or a slow push-in on Stevie and Ian having an uncomfortable conversation while playing video games on their couch."

  3. 3
    A monostable multivibrator.

    "The monostable multivibrator, or one-shot, is designed to generate controllable-duration pulses when triggered by the rising or falling edge of a trigger clock."

  4. 4
    A programmable interval timer.

    "After peak detection, the processed pulses operate a one-shot circuit which gives a fixed pulse width of 230 ms."

  5. 5
    Something that occurs only once; a one-off.

    "Some ideas are one-shots."

Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    A music sample that is played without immediate repetition.

    "Loops automatically conform to a project's tempo; one-shots ignore the tempo and maintain a fixed duration. One-shots are files, such as a percussion hit or a sound effect, that are not intended to be looped."

  2. 7
    A fanfic of only one chapter. slang
  3. 8
    A single appearance by a performer.

    "Imagine, then, all those disciplined, hard-working, up-and-coming actors, desperately eager to land a consistent job in a nighttime series or daytime soap, but grateful for one-shots, under-five-liners (minimum pay), or even walk-ons."

  4. 9
    A gun that must be reloaded after firing a single shot.

    "He also knew where Bell hid his derringer, knew it was in his sleeve instead of his belt or his boot. And he had spotted the tiny one-shot in his coat pocket, which no one ever noticed."

  5. 10
    A product that is sold on its own, rather than as part of a line of products.

    "The inexpensive one-shots still make up a minuscule part of the market, but they are getting attention."

  6. 11
    A player that can be killed in a single hit.
Verb
  1. 1
    Alternative form of oneshot alt-of, alternative
Adjective
  1. 1
    Needing only a single attempt to become effective. not-comparable

    "A one-shot solution to financial problems"

  2. 2
    Unique; occurring only once. not-comparable

    "The most effective way to adapt to changing circumstances would be to enter into one-shot deals that would leave the party the freedom to enter into subsequent transactions or not, depending on the then-current circumstances."

  3. 3
    Performing all the necessary steps on every occurrence, rather than relying on previous setup. not-comparable

    "Whether a window is one-shot or not makes little difference from the perspective of the programmer. A one-shot window costs more to make visible but uses less memory when it is not being displayed."

  4. 4
    Measuring something at a single point in time, with no control group. not-comparable

    "Analysts typically conduct one-shot case studies on unique events of history."

  5. 5
    Pertaining to a single shot.; Involving a single gunshot. not-comparable

    "Now the best shooters in the world fired the best rifle in the world, one-shot/one-kill out to one thousand meters."

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  1. 6
    Pertaining to a single shot.; Holding 1.5 ounces. not-comparable

    "Here it was sucked from tiny one-shot bottles wrapped in coarse paper, taken between drafts of good East German beer."

  2. 7
    Pertaining to a single shot.; Involving a single act of launching a ball. not-comparable

    "Ask anyone — golf writers, designers, players —and they all agree the coolest thing about the one-shot hole is — you can complete it in one shot."

Synonyms

All synonyms
one-off

Example

More examples

"The United States is donating 17 million doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the African Union, bringing the total American donation to the continent to 67 million doses."

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.