Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Covering a wide range in a random way; indiscriminate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Covering a broad range in a random and unsystematic way.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective covering a wide range in a haphazard way

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

scatter +‎ shot

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Examples

  • Currently, it is deployed by the Right in scattershot fashion merely to attack the people and ideas with which it disagrees.

    Archive 2009-06-01 2009

  • This Romans-to-NASA section of the book prompts a gee-whiz reaction (and the wistful hope that it 's true), and Mr. Kelly has plenty of other nuggets to pass along — delivered mostly in scattershot fashion.

    Do Machines Have Minds of Their Own? Jeremy Philips 2010

  • And, yes, he says that sometimes, but it gets lost in all these other -- what many Republicans call scattershot day to day messages of the McCain campaign.

    CNN Transcript Oct 21, 2008 2008

  • Steve Ballmer would bring the company's all encompassing - critics might say 'scattershot' - take on digital media, computing, and entertainment to the stage at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas .

    Forbes.com: News Brian Caulfield 2011

  • It's very easy to hunt down the kind of scattershot facts that Milbank chooses to collect.

    Dana Milbank would like Sarah Palin to stop fighting and accept defeat graciously. Ann Althouse 2008

  • Maybe the "scattershot" vs. "targeted" approach to job applications debate is better suited to another thread?

    Wired Campus 2010

  • Maybe the "scattershot" vs. "targeted" approach to job applications debate is better suited to another thread?

    Wired Campus 2010

  • So far, they claim that they've used public data in a kind of scattershot approach - but Dizzy points out in a second update to his post that there may be "more to this than meets the eye".

    The Coffee House | Politics and News Discussion Forum Peter Hoskin 2010

  • So far, they claim that they've used public data in a kind of scattershot approach - but Dizzy points out in a second update to his post that there may be "more to this than meets the eye".

    The Coffee House | Politics and News Discussion Forum Peter Hoskin 2010

  • Kimberly Chun; her top ten is, as she calls it, "scattershot," but is a pretty good list nonetheless.

    GreenCine Daily 2009

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