wedding

A traditional wedding held in a church in which the bride wears a white gown. After watching my sister stress over all the details of her white wedding, I decided to elope—in just a plain blue dress, no less! After all the white weddings in our family, Ted wants to get married in the back yard—can you believe it?

A hasty (and sometimes forced) marriage due to the bride's pregnancy. Primarily heard in UK. If Lady Anne is indeed pregnant, there will need to be a knobstick wedding at once.

A wedding that happens quickly due to an unplanned pregnancy. After finding out she was pregnant, Gina and Tom had a shotgun wedding.

The cake served at a wedding reception. It is traditionally tiered and elaborately-decorated, and usually is ceremonially cut by the newlyweds, who then feed the first slice to each other. Did you see the eight-tiered wedding cake? It's beautiful! Jim and Julie are going to cut their wedding cake now!

slang To feel awkward and out of place at an event. Primarily heard in UK. I don't know anyone here, so I've been like a spare prick at a wedding, just standing in the corner by myself.

to celebrate in honor of someone at someone's wedding. I will dance at your wedding—if you invite me, of course. If you think I will dance at your wedding, you had better be nicer to me!

Prov. If you dream that a person has died, you will learn that person is to be married. Alan: I had a dream last night that my sister was killed. Jane: Dream of a funeral and you hear of a marriage.

Fig. a forced wedding. (From imagery of the bride's father having threatened the bridegroom with a shotgun to force him to marry the bride because he made her pregnant.) Mary was six months pregnant when she married Bill. It was a real shotgun wedding. Bob would never have married Jane if she hadn't been pregnant. Jane's father saw to it that it was a shotgun wedding.

a marriage that is arranged very quickly because the woman is going to have a baby After a shotgun wedding at 20, she had 3 children before divorcing from her husband.

to feel silly because you are present at an event but no one needs you and no one is talking to you Everyone else there had come with their partners and I was left feeling like a spare prick at a wedding.

a man's sexual organs He wears special padding to protect his wedding tackle.

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.

A wedding made compulsory by bride's pregnancy. At a time and in social circles where a baby's illegitimacy stigmatized both mother and child, something had to be done, and in a hurry. As soon as his unwed daughter broke the news of her pregnancy and the father-to-be's unwillingness to marry her, the father grabbed his shotgun off the wall. With such motivation, the young man was forced to accompany the young lady to the nearest preacher or justice of the peace to make her an honest woman. The phase is sometimes used to describe business mergers made only for reasons of expediency.