shotgun wedding

or shotgun marriage


noun

a wedding occasioned or precipitated by pregnancy.
Informal. a compromise, merger, accord, etc., occasioned by necessity: The coalition government was obviously a shotgun wedding.

Origin of shotgun wedding

An Americanism dating back to 1925–30

Words nearby shotgun wedding

British Dictionary definitions for shotgun marriage

shotgun wedding

noun

informal a wedding into which one or both partners are coerced, usually because the woman is pregnant

Idioms and Phrases with shotgun marriage

Shotgun wedding

An agreement or compromise made through necessity, as in Since neither side won a majority, the coalition government was obviously a shotgun wedding. This expression alludes to a marriage precipitated by a woman's pregnancy, causing her father to point a literal or figurative gun at the responsible man's head. Its figurative use dates from the mid-1900s.