shotgun marriage

Etymology
From + ; compare.

Noun

 * 1)  A marriage beginning with (resulting from) a shotgun wedding.
 * 2) * 1996, George A. Akerlof et al., “An Analysis of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing in the United States” (journal article), reproduced in Explorations in Pragmatic Economics: Selected Papers of George A. Akerlof, Oxford University Press (2005), ISBN 978-19-925391-3, page 146:
 * Others explained that a forced marriage was likely to end in an early divorce, so that the child would suffer more in a shotgun marriage than if born out of wedlock.
 * 1)  A shotgun wedding itself.
 * 2)  Such marriages, or such weddings, taken collectively.