shoot

• Didn't you have a concert tonight? —Shoot! I forgot! I have to go and get ready…
• She practically stopped dancing, and started looking over everybody’s heads to see if she could see him. “Oh, shoot!” she said. I'd just about broken her heart—I really had. - 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger,...

• Prune off yet also superfluous branches, and shoots of this second spring. - 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn]...
• From the bonfire of last autumn's HS2 decision, there are green shoots pushing through the ashes. - 2024 April 3, Philip Haigh, “Comment: A new, better version of HS2”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 3:

• While you see some of our exploration on camera, I also spent many happy hours between shoots with Chris Nix, digging out dozens of wonderful plans, maps and drawings of projects that I never knew existed, and some that...

• The Turkish bow giveth a very forcible shoot. - 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […]...
• One underneath his horse to get a shoot doth stalk. - 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion:

• where to find a shoot of ore opposite one they may have taken away on a parallel lode - 1853, Thomas McElrath, William Jewett Tenney, William Phipps Blake, The Mining Magazine and Journal of Geology, Mineralogy,...
• 1901, Frank Lee Hess, pubs.usgs.gov report. Rare Metals. TIN, TUNGSTEN, AND TANTALUM IN SOUTH DAKOTA. In the western dike is a shoot about 4 feet in diameter carrying a considerable sprinkling of cassiterite, ore which...

• That there was no evidence before the jury that at the time of the accident the timber shoot was worked by the defendant company. - 1891, New South Wales. Supreme Court, The New South Wales Law Reports, volume 12, page...

• Once the last line of cable has been retrieved, there is little evidence that a shoot has been conducted. - 1980, The Williston Basin, 1980, page 159:

• to shoot a gun

1. (transitive) To fire (a weapon that releases a projectile).

2. (transitive) To fire (a projectile).

   • If you please / To shoot an arrow that self way. - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...

   Synonyms: loose

3. (transitive) To fire a projectile at (a person or target).

   • The man, in a desperate bid for freedom, grabbed his gun and started shooting anyone he could.
   • The hunter shot the deer to harvest its meat.
   • The unfortunate Divisional Director, responsible for the Emperor's safety, shot himself. - 1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, in Railway Magazine, page 252:

4. (intransitive) To cause a weapon to discharge a projectile.

   • They shot at a target.
   • He shoots better than he rides.

5. (intransitive) To hunt birds, etc. with a gun.

   • They're coming to shoot with us on Sunday.
   • The place was called the House of More, and I had shot at it once or twice in recent years. - 1899 January – 1902 January, John Buchan, “(please specify the page)”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales,...

6. (transitive) To hunt on (a piece of land); to kill game in or on.

   • Although the estate had been shot previously, there had been no effective keepering and little success with the pheasants released. - 1969, Game Conservancy (Great Britain), Annual Review (issues 1-8, page 16)

7. (gambling) To throw dice.

   • Then, when it was his turn to shoot, he reached out with a completely empty hand and caught the dice the stickman threw to him. - 1980, John Scarne, Scarne on Dice, page 275:

8. (transitive, slang) To ejaculate.

   • After a very short time, he shot his load over the carpet.

9. (intransitive, usually, as imperative) To begin to speak.

   • "Can I ask you a question?" "Shoot."
   • "And now," I suggested, "I think it's about time we began to rough out a plan of campaign. Shall I throw around a few observations first?" [...] Josella blew out a feather of smoke and took a sip of her drink. Savouring...

10. (intransitive) To discharge a missile; said of a weapon.

    • The gun shoots well.

11. (transitive, figurative) To dismiss or do away with.

    • His idea was shot on sight.

12. (transitive, intransitive, analogous) To photograph.

    • He shot the couple in a variety of poses.
    • He shot seventeen stills.
    • I had the pleasure of shooting Arnold Newman while teaching across the hall from him at a summer photo workshop. - 2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, →ISBN, page 68:

13. (transitive, intransitive, analogous, film, television) To film.

    • The film was mostly shot in France.

14. (transitive) To push or thrust a bolt quickly; hence, to open a lock.

    • There was no answer, so I took the big key, rubbed some salad oil into the wards, and after one or two bad shots, for my hands were shaking, managed to fit it, and shoot the lock. - 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry]...

• After an initial lag, the experimental group's scores shot past the control group's scores in the fourth week.
• As soon as the dog appeared, the cat shot underneath the couch.
• There shot a streaming lamp along the sky. - 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson,...

1. (intransitive) To move very quickly and suddenly.

2. To go over or pass quickly through.

   • shoot the rapids
   • She […] shoots the Stygian sound. - 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […],...
   • It was approaching the time when watermen would not shoot the bridge even without a passenger aboard. - 2005, R. G. Crouch, The Coat: The Origin and Times of Doggett's Famous Wager, page 40:

3. (surfing) To ride a wave.

   • One of the fishermen was really stoked. He was trying to shoot the shore break in his canoe. - 1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer:

4. (transitive) To tip (something, especially coal) down a chute.

5. (transitive) To penetrate, like a missile; to dart with a piercing sensation.

   • a shooting pain in my leg
   • Thy words shoot through my heart. - 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 37:

6. (obsolete, intransitive) To feel a quick, darting pain; to throb in pain.

   • These preachers make / His head to shoot and ache. - [1633], George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel;...

7. (obsolete) To change form suddenly; especially, to solidify.

   • If the menstruum be overcharged, metals will shoot into crystals. - 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten...
   • 1802, Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query VII. The north-east [wind] is loaded with vapor, insomuch, that the salt-makers have found that their crystals would not shoot while that blows.

8. To send out or forth, especially with a rapid or sudden motion; to cast with the hand; to hurl; to discharge; to emit.

   • an honest weaver as ever shot shuttle - c. 1608–1610, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Coxcomb”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647,...
   • a pit into which the dead carts had nightly shot corpses by scores - 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I...

9. (informal, ditransitive) To send to someone.

   • I'll shoot you an email with all the details

10. (informal, intransitive) To leave; to depart.

    • Is that the time already? I've got to shoot.

1. (wrestling) To lunge.

2. (professional wrestling) To deviate from kayfabe, either intentionally or accidentally; to actually connect with unchoreographed fighting blows and maneuvers, or speak one's mind (instead of an agreed script).

3. To make the stated score.

   • In my round of golf yesterday I shot a 76.

Synonyms: fix

• Onions, as they hang, will shoot forth. - 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William...
• But the wild olive shoots, and shades the ungrateful plain. - 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London:...

1. To germinate; to bud; to sprout.

2. To grow; to advance.

   • to shoot up rapidly
   • Well shot in years he seemed. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
   • Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, / To teach the young idea how to shoot. - a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […],...

3. (nautical) To move ahead by force of momentum, as a sailing vessel when the helm is put hard alee.

4. (transitive) To travel or ride on (breaking waves) rowards the shore.

   • `Take the tiller, Mahomed!' I roared in Arabic. `We must try and shoot them.' At the same moment I seized an oar, and got it out, motioning to Job to do likewise. - 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard,...

5. To push or thrust forward; to project; to protrude; often with out.

   • A plant shoots out a bud.
   • They shoot out the lip, they shake the head. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 22:7:
   • Beware the secret snake that shoots a sting. - 1697, Virgil, “Pastoral 3”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

• The land shoots into a promontory.
• There is 432 Park Avenue, a surreal square tube of white concrete that appears to shoot twice as high as anything around it, its endless Cartesian grid of windows framing worlds of solid marble bathtubs and...
• There shot up against the dark sky, tall, gaunt, straggling houses. - 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 49”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published...

• two Pieces of Wood are Shot (that is Plained) or else they are Pared [...] with a Pairing-chissel - 1677, Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises: Or, The Doctrine of Handy-works:

• The tangled water-courses slept, / Shot over with purple, and green, and yellow. - 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Dying Swan”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 54:

• He tried to shoot the visual approach to runway 12, but the visibility was too low.

• Once the area is ready to "shoot," the seismic crew places geophones and cables along the line of the profile to be recorded. - 1986, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Outer...