English
shoot
Pronunciation Verb

shoot (shoots, present participle shooting; past shot, past participle shot)

  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).
      Synonyms: loose
      • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene i]:
        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.
    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.
    6. (transitive) To hunt on (a piece of land); to kill game in or on.
    7. (transitive, slang) To ejaculate.
      After a very short time, he shot his load over the carpet.
    8. (intransitive, usually, as imperative) To begin to speak.
      "Can I ask you a question?"   "Shoot."
    9. (intransitive) To discharge a missile; said of a weapon.
      The gun shoots well.
    10. (transitive, figurative) To dismiss or do away with.
      His idea was shot on sight.
    11. (transitive, intransitive, analogous) To photograph.
      He shot the couple in a variety of poses.
      He shot seventeen stills.
    12. (transitive, intransitive, analogous, cinema, TV) To film.
      The film was mostly shot in France.
  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.
      • There shot a streaming lamp along the sky.
      • 1884: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VII
        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.
    2. To go over or pass quickly through.
      shoot the rapids
      • 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
      • 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, published 1712, [Act 3, scene 1]:
        Thy words shoot through my heart.
    5. (obsolete, intransitive) To feel a quick, darting pain; to throb in pain.
      • These preachers make / His head to shoot and ache.
    6. (obsolete) To change form suddenly; especially, to solidify.
      • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie: In Ten Centuries
        If the menstruum be overcharged, metals will shoot into crystals.
      • 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.
    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, Beaumont and Fletcher, The Coxcomb
        an honest weaver as ever shot shuttle
      • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 3, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:
    8. (informal, transitive) To send to someone.
      I'll shoot you an email with all the details
  3. (sport) 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.
  6. To develop, move forward.
    1. To germinate; to bud; to sprout.
      • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie: In Ten Centuries
        Onions, as they hang, will shoot forth.
      • 1709, John Dryden, Georgics
        But the wild olive shoots, and shades the ungrateful plain.
    2. To grow; to advance.
      to shoot up rapidly
      • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938 ↗, book V:
        Well shot in years he seemed.
      • 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. 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), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Psalms 22:7 ↗:
        They shoot out the lip, they shake the head.
      • Beware the secret snake that shoots a sting.
  7. To protrude; to jut; to project; to extend.
    The land shoots into a promontory.
    • 1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers Chapter 49 ↗
      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.Shot silk
    • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Dying Swan
      The tangled water courses slept, / Shot over with purple, and green, and yellow.
  10. (card games) To shoot the moon.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

shoot (plural shoots)

  1. The emerging stem and embryonic leaves of a new plant.
    • Superfluous branches and shoots of this second spring.
  2. A photography session.
  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.
    • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie: In Ten Centuries
      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.
  8. A shoat; a young pig.
  9. (mining) A vein of ore running in the same general direction as the lode.
  10. An inclined plane, either artificial or natural, down which timber, coal, ore, etc., are caused to slide; a chute.
  11. (card games) The act of taking all point cards in one hand.
Translations Translations
  • French: prise de photos, séance photo
  • Italian: ripresa
  • Russian: съёмка
  • Spanish: sesión fotográfica
Interjection
  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...
Synonyms Translations Translations

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