Meaning:
When you are “ under the gun “ you are under pressure to do something by a deadline or in a particular way.
“This team has been under the gun for a while“.
A less frequent alternative to “under the gun” would be “under the cosh” . Aussies also use “under the pump” as a synonym of “under the gun”, but it is very uncommonly heard outside of Australia.
If you are into poker you are probably already familiar with the expression “under the gun”. Being under the gun (often shortened in UTG) at a poker table means that you are the first to play in the pre-flop phase. The player who is "under the gun" has a big disadvantage due to their position.
Origin and Etymology:
I always assumed that “under the gun” meant that someone was holding a gun to your head and you had to do the task, like opening a locked safe or whatever, and being under the gun. As soon as I researched a bit about the origin of this idiom, I could find only a couple of plausible theories:
- According to the first one, this idiom originated from the military parlance and would be now outdated. Common sense would suggest that being “under the gun” means that you are subject to the enemy's artillery fire, but I found trace of a talk on Wikipedia where it is argued that being “under the gun” means that you are so close to the enemy's artillery that you are no longer subject to fire.
- According to another theory, “under the gun” would come from a phrase used in races. When the starter raises the starting gun, all of the competitors are put "under the gun", which means that they cannot ask for a time out and must start the competition when the starter fires. This etymology fits well with the idea of urgency and the pressure of a deadline.
Ludwig's wrap-up:
Even if “under the gun” doesn’t mean that someone is going to shoot you if you don’t complete a particular task by a certain date, I still think that the following image can help you to remember the idea of urgency and pressure.
