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lone gunman

noun

Etymology

From the Warren Commission's lone gunman theory, that the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy was the work of a single individual, subsequently applied to numerous other political assassinations and shootings.

Definitions

  1. An individual person who acts on his or her own initiative, without partners, especially…

    An individual person who acts on his or her own initiative, without partners, especially one who has sole responsibility for doing something questionable, confidential, or iniquitous.

    • Trial lawyers, always a colorful and eclectic bunch. . . . Most were lone gunmen too eccentric to keep much of a staff.
    • The Wilson family had been sorely conflicted because each member had gone off in his or her own direction, thinking that they were all lone gunmen.

The neighborhood

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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA