This week’s theme
Words related to weapons

This week’s words
shell-shocked
hatchet job
battle-axe
smoking gun
great guns

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SMOH-king gun)

MEANING:

noun: Something that serves as incriminating evidence, especially of a crime.

ETYMOLOGY:

From the idea that someone holding a recently fired gun that still has the smoke coming out of the barrel would make for incontrovertible evidence that they were the one who shot the victim. Earliest documented use: 1970s.

USAGE:

“John Sauven, an executive director at Greenpeace UK, said: ‘The link between climate change and extreme weather used to be a fingerprint, it now looks more like a smoking gun.’”
Damian Carrington; Climate Change Made UK Heatwave 30 Times More Likely -- Met Office; The Guardian (London, UK); Dec 6, 2018.

See more usage examples of smoking gun in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: