noun

• 1informal A man who carries a gun and shoots well.

  More example sentences

  • ‘a frontier gunslinger who was quick on the draw’
  • ‘Winner's ‘ordinary’ American was going to be someone whom the audience already knew as a gunslinger and hit man.’
  • ‘The Western provides Americans with comforting images of resolute pioneers and lone gunslingers.’
  • ‘Outlaw, their fourth album, sets out to romanticise Britain's famed criminals in the same way that American country music celebrates its history of gunslingers and gamblers.’
  • ‘Like gunslingers in their own shoot-'em-up games, top console makers are blasting away with marketing salvoes months before products even hit the shelves.’
  • ‘One of the recurrent characters in his works is, in fact, a murderous gunslinger at the ready, pistol pointed toward an unseen target outside the frame.’
  • ‘Ford, brandishing a heavy pistol in each hand, blasted away all around him like a crazed gunslinger as the survivors and his crew leapt or were carried aboard the ship.’
  • ‘Cowboys rarely, if ever, ate pasta and Italy's history, while rich and storied, is bereft of tales of cattle rustlers, gunslingers and homesteaders circling the wagons.’
  • ‘There's also scope for sadism regarding the innocent civilians that populate each type of terrain, ranging from Eskimos to Mexican gunslingers.’
  • ‘But the absence of the traditional enemy didn't spoil the fun for assortment of enthusiasts including gunslingers, gamblers, and their womenfolk.’
  • ‘Like two gunslingers, the pair must now size each other up, staring intently through narrowed eyes, trigger fingers twitching, working out who will make the first move.’
  • ‘Recall also that the three musketeers are fallen idols, prototypes of the grizzled gunslingers found in so many Westerns.’
  • ‘The hardest charger racks up accolades like a gunslinger notching kills on a gun: will he ever understand that learning is not a checklist of accomplishments, but a state of mind.’
  • ‘As spats go it was a fairly combustive one, and one which could have had a bloody conclusion when the veteran gunslinger and the new kid on the block met for their showdown in the Gleneagles Hotel dining room.’
  • ‘I never thought of him as a particularly great actor, but he had a squint to rival Clint Eastwood's, and, of course, he was also famous for being a gunslinger.’
  • ‘His masterpiece, Unforgiven, is all about a gunslinger whose age brings wisdom and the sense that physical decline can be offset by spiritual growth.’
  • ‘They'd been waiting anxiously for the right opportunity, knowing that they'd never be able to beat the gunslinger in a straightforward fight.’
  • ‘Like a scene from a Western when the gunslinger walks into the saloon, the conversation dips to a low whisper, men freeze with their lips inches from their beer.’
  • ‘Wayne is a wounded gunslinger helping old friend Mitchum, an alcoholic sheriff, battle a nefarious cattle baron.’
  • ‘Somehow he winds up with a reputation as a fierce gunslinger, and has to follow the confines of the genre to their bloody conclusion.’
  • ‘Having discovered that I was not alone in my quest to be a gunslinger, I needed to find out the basics.’

  Synonyms

  armed robber, hold-up man, bandit, gangster, terrorist, gunfighter

  1. 1.1A forceful and adventurous participant in a particular sphere.
     More example sentences

     • ‘the heroes of Wall Street were hip young gunslingers’