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hired gun

noun Informal.

a person hired to kill someone, as a gunfighter or professional killer.

a person hired to bear arms and fight for another, as a bodyguard or mercenary.

a person, as a politician or lobbyist, skilled at attaining power for others.

a person hired to resolve difficult problems or disputes or to handle complex legal or business problems.

Origin:
1965–70

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Hired gun is always a great word to know.

So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

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Slang Dictionary

hired gun definition

n.
a paid assassin. (Underworld.) : The cops are holding a well-known hired gun until they can prepare charges.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

hired gun

A person, especially a professional killer, employed to kill-someone, as in They thought the murder had been done by a hired gun. The noun gun has been slang for a professional criminal since the mid-1800s.
A person with special knowledge or expertise who is employed to resolve a complex problem. For example, The legal team was looking for a hired gun to handle the antitrust angle of the case. [Slang; 1960s]

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Matching Quote

"Fellow delegates, like all of you I've listened in awe and admiration to the magnificent oratory of the honorable Major Cassius Starbuckle, the cattlemen's mouthpiece, the lowing herds. But seriously, under the spell of his eloquence I could see once again the vast herd of buffalo and savage redskin roaming our beautiful territory with no law to trample them except the law of survival, the law of the tomahawk and the bow and arrow. But then with the westward march of our nation came the pioneer and the buffalo hunter, the adventurous and the bold. And the boldest of these were the cattlemen who seized the wide-open range for their own personal domain, and their law was the law of the hired gun. Now, now today have come the railroads and the people, hard- working citizens, the homesteader, the shopkeeper, the builder of cities. We need roads to join those cities, dams to store up the waters of the Picket Wire, and we need statehood to protect the rights of every man and woman, however humble."

-Willis Goldbeck

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