birdshot

English

Etymology

From bird +‎ shot.

Noun

birdshot (countable and uncountable, plural birdshots)

  1. Small lead or steel shot, as pieces of ammunition, used in shotgun shells.
    Hypernym: shot
    Coordinate term: buckshot
    • 2007 May 2, “Florida Six Wounded in Shootings”, in New York Times‎[1], sourced from The Associated Press:
      In the first shooting, four of the teenagers were sitting on a porch and were peppered with birdshot from a shotgun fired from a passing car around 2:30 p.m., Sheriff John Rutherford said.
    • 2026 January 13, Deepa Parent, William Christou, “Hundreds of gunshot eye injuries found in one Iranian hospital amid brutal crackdown on protests”, in The Guardian‎[2], →ISSN:
      “Eyes were hit by birdshot pellets and it was deliberate, they are shooting to kill,” said the Tehran doctor. A colleague added that they had removed “20 pellets” from the body of a single protester.
  2. A rifle or pistol cartridge containing small shot instead of a single larger projectile.
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