shotgun house

shotgun house

(chiefly Southern United States slang) A one-story house in which each room is in a straight alignment with the others, connected by a continuous hallway running from the front to the back of the residence. When our whole family goes to stay in my grandmother's shotgun house in New Orleans, it always feels like we're all right on top of one another.
See also: house, shotgun
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • hut
  • shotgun cottage
  • shotgun hut
  • shotgun shack
  • make life miserable for
  • make life miserable for (one)
  • continue with
  • continue with (something)
  • an eye for the main chance
  • an eye on/for/to the main chance
References in periodicals archive
The two women climbed out of the Honda and without a word wandered into the shotgun house. Yeeter was holding a newspaper and pointed to the ad Tangle had placed.
The grass stood well over a foot high, a miniature jungle surrounding the shotgun house. He cursed himself for slacking on his duties; he hadn't made a tour of the properties in a couple of weeks.
The next day Tangle threw his lawn mower into the bed of his pick-up and drove back over to the shotgun house. He knocked on the door and again nobody answered.
Tangle loaded his tools into his truck and made the twenty minute journey across town to the shotgun house.
Breathing through his mouth, Tangle walked back into the muggy shotgun house and replaced the piece in less than two minutes.
The next day he dropped by the shotgun house with a small box containing three bug bombs.
(As a child, the artist knew shack families; she drew in the dirt with sticks; shotgun houses are found in the South; the Oconee River flows through Athens, Georgia, where the artist now lives; she believes "the spirit" of people is part of architectural structures.)
shout among the drowsing shotgun houses. Say it's a town not far
Project Row House (2500 Holman; 713-526-7662; www.pro jectrowhouses.org) features 10 shotgun houses renovated as vibrant art studios and exhibition spaces.
Most of them depict the African American community in such contexts as beauty, cancer diaries, city scenes, shotgun houses, and Hip Hop but one section deals with Palestine.
Alexander said this can happen to the simple and charming architecture of shotgun houses in Mid-town, or Katrina cottages in Ocean Springs, or the Cotton District in Starkville.
The shapes of the spaces recall the shoebox configuration of the traditional shotgun houses that once filled the quarter, suggesting a metaphorical reuse of detritus.
But what of the big remainder of the city up to Lake Pontchartrain, much of it shotgun houses and public housing complexes?
the house, brick & modern, is an oddity - sits prominently among shotgun houses, cows, chickens, fish ponds, bait shops & trailer homes
The subject matter of Tape 1 includes an essay about the African heritage, the decorative arts of early (and current) African Americans, shotgun houses, and ironwork.