ride shotgun

Possibly from early-20th-century depictions in books and films of the 19th-century practice of a person armed with a rifle or shotgun riding next to a stagecoach driver to provide protection from bandits, etc.

• "He attended the meeting to ride shotgun for the sales team, in case anyone had a technical question."
• "Wyatt and Morgan Earp were in the service of the Express Company. They went often as guards—"riding shotgun," it was called—when the stage bore unusual treasure."
• "Him drivin' stage that a-way, he ain't expected none to fight. [...] That's why, when the stage is stopped, the driver's never downed. Which if thar's money aboard, an' the express outfit wants it defended, they slams on some sport to ride shotgun that trip. It's for this shotgun speshulist to give the route agents an argyooment."
• "TV's Wells Fargo Agent Dale Robertson rides shotgun on the armored car which delivers to local Wells Fargo manager the plans for the new building the company will erect in Charlotte."
• "But the situation [of lost mail] has now improved because the Post Office now rides shotgun on the mails at a cost to the Post Office of $2½ million annually."
• "Want me and some people on Rescue One, riding shotgun?"
• "For a moment, I enjoyed thinking of the type of men who had ridden shotgun in the 1800s. I pictured them as bodyguards, armed with a shotgun and responsible to support, aid, and protect the driver when confronted by robbers."
• "When both kids want to ride shotgun with Mom, they’ll just have to take turns."
• "This is the classic children's theatre touring vehicle, with just enough seating space for four actors (who traditionally fight like five-year-olds about who gets to ride shotgun) and the stage manager, who gets to drive."
• "The memories of his ordeal had ridden shotgun with him the whole trip, but it was easier here, easier to worry about his father and Kate and this stupid marriage pact than to face what he'd left in Texas."
• "Sissy rode shotgun with Clayton Red Bird driving his old Chevy Impala, the backseat crammed with guitars, a bass, microphones, leads, and all the other paraphernalia that they needed to play the gig in the Longhorn after the rodeo."
• "Before sending me out alone, the company assigned me two "ride-alongs" with its top driver, the legendary Marco, who went out with 280 packages the second day I rode shotgun with him, took his full lunch break, did not roll through a single stop sign, and was finished by sundown."
• "He has ridden shotgun over Hunt's financial affairs since Hunt was a baby in business, ascending to the head chair on the board that governs the Chiefs and the Hunt Midwest Enterprises empire of mining and real estate development."
• "Thank you also to Stacey Ammerman, who rode shotgun on the technical editing end of this book to make sure everything you read is easy to understand and actually works the way it is supposed to."
• "Not only are they investors, they run a company, HomeFixers, that helps hundreds of other investors each year. What they bring to the table is hard-won brass-tacks knowledge from over fifteen years of personal investing as well as riding shotgun on over 1,000 flips with their clients."

• shotgun