Potshot

adj, noun, verb, slang

adj, noun, verb, slang ·2 syllables ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A shot taken at an easy or random target.

    "to take a potshot at"

  2. 2
    a shot taken at an easy or casual target (as by a pothunter) wordnet
  3. 3
    Criticism of an easy target; a cheap shot. figuratively

    "He takes his share of potshots (mostly at the Da Vinci surgical robot), but the conscience of the film is in the stories of Essure, a procedure marketed to women as a hassle-free alternative to tubal ligation"

  4. 4
    criticism aimed at an easy target and made without careful consideration wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To fire potshots.

    "Howard appeared in the doorway. “Say, Sig, go down to the corral and saddle up Teddy for Steve, will you? Some of his friends have been potshotting at him again. No damage done, except to my feelings, but there's nothing like being careful.”"

  2. 2
    simple past and past participle of potshoot form-of, participle, past
Adjective
  1. 1
    Drunk. obsolete, slang

Synonyms

All synonyms
a sheet in the winda sheet in the wind's eyeadrian quistadripaled upall mops and brooms

Antonyms

All antonyms
sober

Example

More examples

"Bannister leaped up, ran lightly across the intervening space, and with his repeater took a potshot at the galloping horseman."

Etymology

From pot + shot. 1858, shot taken for the (cooking) pot, namely for food; see pothunter. Sense “opportunistic criticism” from 1926. Sense “drunk” from obsolete pot (“cup used for drinking liquor”).

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