shoot

• enPR: sho͞ot, IPA^(key): /ʃuːt/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -uːt
• Homophone: chute

From Middle English shoten, from Old English scēotan, from Proto-West Germanic *skeutan, from Proto-Germanic *skeutaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kéwd-e-ti, from *(s)kewd- (“to shoot, throw”).

shoot (third-person singular simple present shoots, present participle shooting, simple past shot, past participle shot or (rare) shotten)

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

      to shoot a gun

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

      Synonym: (of an arrow) loose

      • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

        If you please / To shoot an arrow that self way.

   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.

      • 1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, in Railway Magazine, page 252:

        The unfortunate Divisional Director, responsible for the Emperor's safety, shot himself.

      • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria:

        Shepard: She's surrounded by geth and pointing a gun at us. Shoot her!

   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.

      • 1899 January – 1902 January, John Buchan, “(please specify the page)”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1902, →OCLC:

        The place was called the House of More, and I had shot at it once or twice in recent years.

   6. (transitive) To hunt on (a piece of land); to kill game in or on.
      • 1969, Game Conservancy (Great Britain), Annual Review (issues 1-8, page 16)

        Although the estate had been shot previously, there had been no effective keepering and little success with the pheasants released.

   7. (gambling) To throw dice.
      • 1980, John Scarne, Scarne on Dice, page 275:

        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.

   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."

   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.

       • 2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, →ISBN, page 68:

         I had the pleasure of shooting Arnold Newman while teaching across the hall from him at a summer photo workshop.

   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.
       • 1886 October – 1887 January, H Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

         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.

2. To move or act quickly or suddenly.
   1. (intransitive) To move very quickly and suddenly.

      After an initial lag, the experimental group's scores shot past the control group's scores in the fourth week.

      • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

        There shot a streaming lamp along the sky.

      • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) , London: Chatto & Windus, , →OCLC:

        It didn't take me long to get there. I shot past the head at a ripping rate, the current was so swift, and then I got into the dead water and landed on the side towards the Illinois shore.

      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

        Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges[...]: or anon we shot into a clearing, with a colored glimpse of the lake and its curving shore far below us.

   2. To go over or pass quickly through.

      shoot the rapids

      • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

        She […] shoots the Stygian sound.

      • 2005, R. G. Crouch, The Coat: The Origin and Times of Doggett's Famous Wager, page 40:

        It was approaching the time when watermen would not shoot the bridge even without a passenger aboard.

   3. (transitive) To tip (something, especially coal) down a chute.
   4. (transitive) To penetrate, like a missile; to dart with a piercing sensation.

      a shooting pain in my leg

      • 1712 (date written), Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. , London: J Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iii, page 1:

        Thy words shoot through my heart.

   5. (obsolete, intransitive) To feel a quick, darting pain; to throb in pain.
      • , George Herbert, edited by [Nicholas Ferrar], The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, , →OCLC:

        These preachers make / His head to shoot and ache.

   6. (obsolete) To change form suddenly; especially, to solidify.
      • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis , “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , London: William Rawley ; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC:

        If the menstruum be overcharged, metals will shoot into crystals.

      • 1802, Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query VII.

        The north-east is loaded with vapor, insomuch, that the salt-makers have found that their crystals would not shoot while that blows.

   7. To send out or forth, especially with a rapid or sudden motion; to cast with the hand; to hurl; to discharge; to emit.
      • c. 1608–1610, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Coxcomb”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

        an honest weaver as ever shot shuttle

      • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

        a pit into which the dead carts had nightly shot corpses by scores

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

      I'll shoot you an email with all the details

3. (sports) To act or achieve.
   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.

4. (surveying) To measure the distance and direction to (a point).
5. (transitive, intransitive, colloquial) To inject a drug (such as heroin) intravenously.

   Synonym: fix

6. To develop, move forward.
   1. To germinate; to bud; to sprout.
      • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis , “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , London: William Rawley ; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC:

        Onions, as they hang, will shoot forth.

      • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

        But the wild olive shoots, and shades the ungrateful plain.

   2. To grow; to advance.

      to shoot up rapidly

      • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

        Well shot in years he seemed.

      • a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: A Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, , published 1768, →OCLC:

        Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, / To teach the young idea how to shoot.

   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.
      • 1886 October – 1887 January, H Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

        `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.

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

      A plant shoots out a bud.

      • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Psalms 22:7:

        They shoot out the lip, they shake the head.

      • 1697, Virgil, “Pastoral 3”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

        Beware the secret snake that shoots a sting.

7. To protrude; to jut; to project; to extend.

   The land shoots into a promontory.

   • 2019 June 1, Oliver Wainwright, “Super-tall, super-skinny, super-expensive: the ‘pencil towers’ of New York’s super-rich”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 October 2020:

     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 climate-controlled wine cellars within.

   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 49”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, , published 1837, →OCLC:

     There shot up against the dark sky, tall, gaunt, straggling houses.

8. (carpentry) To plane straight; to fit by planing.
   • 1677, Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises: Or, The Doctrine of Handy-works:

     two Pieces of Wood are Shot (that is Plained) or else they are Pared [...] with a Pairing-chissel

9. To variegate as if by sprinkling or intermingling; to color in spots or patches. (See shot silk on Wikipedia)
   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Dying Swan”, in Poems. , volume I, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 54:

     The tangled water-courses slept, / Shot over with purple, and green, and yellow.

10. (card games) To shoot the moon.
11. (aviation) To carry out, or attempt to carry out (an approach to an airport runway).

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

12. To carry out a seismic survey with geophones in an attempt to detect oil.
    • 1986, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Moratoria: Hearing, page 438:

      Once the area is ready to "shoot," the seismic crew places geophones and cables along the line of the profile to be recorded.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:shoot.

• → Catalan: xut
• → Greek: σουτ (sout)
• → Hijazi Arabic: شوت (šūt)
• → North Levantine Arabic: شوت (šūt)
• → Persian: شوت (šut)
• → Portuguese: chuto, chute (Brazil), chutar
• → Romanian: șut
• → Vietnamese: sút

shoot (plural shoots)

1. The emerging stem and embryonic leaves of a new plant.
   • 1664, J E, Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. , London: Jo Martyn, and Ja Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, , →OCLC:

     Prune off yet also superfluous branches, and shoots of this second spring.

   • 2024 April 3, Philip Haigh, “Comment: A new, better version of HS2”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 3:

     From the bonfire of last autumn's HS2 decision, there are green shoots pushing through the ashes.

2. A photography session.
   • 2021 June 30, Tim Dunn, “How we made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in RAIL, number 934, page 50:

     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 never did exist.

3. A hunt or shooting competition.
4. (professional wrestling, slang) An event that is unscripted or legitimate.
5. The act of shooting; the discharge of a missile; a shot.^[1]
   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis , “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , London: William Rawley ; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC:

     The Turkish bow giveth a very forcible shoot.

   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion:

     One underneath his horse to get a shoot doth stalk.

6. A rush of water; a rapid.
7. (weaving) A weft thread shot through the shed by the shuttle; a pick.^[1]
8. A shoat; a young pig.^[1]
9. (mining) A vein of ore running in the same general direction as the lode.^[1]
   • 1853, Thomas McElrath, William Jewett Tenney, William Phipps Blake, The Mining Magazine and Journal of Geology, Mineralogy, Metallurgy:

     where to find a shoot of ore opposite one they may have taken away on a parallel lode

   • 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 in quantity would undoubtedly be worth mining. The shoot contains a large amount of muscovite mica with quartz and very little or no feldspar...

10. An inclined plane, either artificial or natural, down which timber, coal, ore, etc., are caused to slide; a chute.^[1]
    • 1891, New South Wales. Supreme Court, The New South Wales Law Reports, volume 12, page 238:

      That there was no evidence before the jury that at the time of the accident the timber shoot was worked by the defendant company.

11. (card games) The act of taking all point cards in one hand.
12. A seismic survey carried out with geophones in an attempt to detect oil.
    • 1980, The Williston Basin, 1980, page 159:

      Once the last line of cable has been retrieved, there is little evidence that a shoot has been conducted.

• (hunt or shooting competition): turkey shoot

• Catalan: xut
• Portuguese: chuto

Minced oath for shit.

shoot

1. A mild expletive, expressing disbelief or disdain

   Didn't you have a concert tonight? —Shoot! I forgot! I have to go and get ready…

   • 1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 96:

     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.

• (mild expletive): darn, dash, fiddlesticks, shucks, sugar

• toosh, Hoots, Htoos, hoots, Sotho, O-shot, sooth

• Audio:

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shoot m (plural shoots)

1. shot (in sports)
2. shoot 'em up
3. shot (of drugs)
4. photoshoot

• “shoot”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.