Last verified: April 2026
Definition
Shotgun (verb and noun) is the act of one smoker exhaling a lungful of cannabis smoke straight into a second smoker’s mouth, often from just an inch or two away. The receiver inhales the transferred smoke. The motion is intimate — lips close or touching — so the custom is strictly consent-first: you ask, you do not assume. A secondary meaning: forcing joint smoke through a beer can or bottle to concentrate a hit (a party-trick variant far less common today).
Etymology & Origin
The term came out of 1970s counterculture, most likely from Vietnam-era soldiers and festival culture of the same years, where the move circulated as both a bonding ritual and a flirtation. The name is a riff on the shotgun maneuver used with beer cans — puncturing the side for a fast pour — i.e., any rapid, direct delivery. It has no single attributable coiner.
Usage
Used as both verb and noun.
- “Can I shotgun you?”
- “She shotgunned him across the campfire.”
- “That shotgun hit me harder than the joint did.”
Context matters. Shotgunning with a partner is one thing; shotgunning a stranger at a party without asking is a textbook faux pas and a hygiene problem. Lips-touching is the default assumption — if that is not welcome, it does not happen.
Related Terms
See wet lips on joints, puff puff pass, and the broader faux pas guide.
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