Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) to have a sophisticated verbal wit; to defeat someone in a verbal contest, e.g. dozens n.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 91: Young blacks early become connoisseurs of good and bad talk, of who shoots blanks and who shoots a good shot.

see under line n.¹

to circulate a false or dubious rumour.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

see shoot the con

(US black) to belittle, to tease aggressively.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 254: shoot jokes (on one) See cap.

see separate entry.

1. to mock, to tease, to discredit.

1968		‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 94: I may shoot on d’ dude just to see where he’s comin’ from, what his reaction’s gonna be.

2. to talk seductively to.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 254: shoot on (one) [...] 2. Talk seductively and persuasively to a member of the opposite sex.
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 210: There’s a fine gabacha chick [...] I want to shoot on her.

(US black) to make an all-out effort at seduction by one’s persuasive conversation.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 254: shoot (one’s) best mack 1. Talk as seductively and persuasively as possible to a member of the opposite sex. 2. Talk as effectively as one can.

see under gab n.¹

see under shoot off v.

see under shoot off v.

to talk or behave openly, honestly or candidly.

1927		(con. 1910s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 350: ‘These are folks I can shoot straight with,’ decided Elmer.
1927		K. Nicholson Barker III i: Are you sure you’re shootin’ square – to go off like this without a word?
1932		E.S. Gardner ‘Bird in the Hand’ in Goulart (1967) 268: You shoot square with me and I’ll shoot square with you.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 753: He wondered would he have done better by putting all his cards on the table and shooting square.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 158: If you want to shoot straight, shoot straight.
1959		J. Thompson Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 57: Just shoot square with me, and you got no more trouble than a flea in a dog pound.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 21: He’s famous for shooting straight in business and everywhere.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 9: And for all those Irish freckles, he somehow missed the Blarney stone. He shoots straight.
2022		I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 124: Kid, I like to shoot straight [...] so this is the real and true answer.

see under baloney n.

(orig. US) to gossip, to talk idly; thus breeze shooter n.

1930		Pittsburgh Sentinel (MA) 24 Sept. n.p.: Here the crew gathers at meal time or ‘shoot the breeze’ when off-watch.
1937		Indiana (PA) Weekly Messenger 10 June 10/1: ‘Wait a minute, Dad,’ I said. ‘I’m no cop. I just wanted to shoot the breeze with you.’.
1943		Bayler & Carnes Last Man Off Wake Island 123: The boys would come over and we’d ‘shoot the breeze’ in long bull-fests.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 28: He didn’t want to shoot the breeze.
1966		D. Niland Pairs and Loners 16: Do you know who I am, breeze-shooter?
1967		Babs Gonzales I Paid My Dues 96: He could now lounge in the bars shooting the jive with his colleagues.
1968		G. Cuomo Among Thieves 35: It felt good just shooting the breeze and taking it easy.
1970		Capital (Annapolis, MD) 27 June 13/1: Breeze shooters, rag chewers with a gift of the gab.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 145: Lounging on the yard and shooting the breeze.
1983		C. Heath A-Team 2 (1984) 37: Have you picked up anything we can use yet? [...] Or are they just shooting the breeze?
1984		Greenville News (SC) 3 Feb. 4B/1: A full corps of breeze shooters has found its way to the Powell home. ‘Something about the fire just draws people’.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 13 June 57: We have these great telephone conversations where we just shoot the breeze about stuff.
2009		Financial Times Weekend Mag. 10–11 Jan. 44/3: Donkin shoots the breeze with brewer and sailor Jonathan Adnams.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 22: [T]hey’d [...] shoot the breeze about easy women and anarchy.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] Sometimes we’d shoot the breeze. Drink moonshine’.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 9: ‘Can’t a fella just call to shoot the breeze?’.

see under bull n.⁶

(US tramp) to talk nonsense.

1909		H. Green Mr. Jackson 290: Five more minutes o’ the lady shootin’ the con at me [...] an’ I’d been the little lady’s feeancy.
1930		G. Milburn ‘Toledo Slim’ Hobo’s Hornbook 194: For when it came to doozy looks, that ‘Tommy’ was queen. / We chewed the rag for quite a while, I shot con for fair.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 131: We chewed the rag for quite a while and shot the con for fair / and when it came to spreadin’ jive, you could gamble that I was there.

see play the dozen(s) under dozens n.

see chew the fat v.

1. to gossip, to talk idly.

1994		G. Smitherman Black Talk.
2003		R. Hardy Streiker’s Morning Sun 146: ‘Thats what he told me too’ […] ‘He shoot the gift with you?’ [...] they shared stories of what Fletcher had told them.

2. to rap well.

1993–2003		dr smithabeat on Urban Dict. 🌐 shoot the gift Demonstrate one’s capacity for lyricism. See spit. I move swift and uplift your mind, shoot the gift when I riff in rhyme – Nas.
2000		Wu-Tang Clan ‘Gravel Pit’ 🎵 on W [album] Yo, step to my groove, move like this / When we shoot the gift of course it’s ruthless / Grab the mic with no excuses.

(US black) to chatter on in the usual, predictable manner.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

to gossip, to chat; to talk nonsense.

1946		N. Mailer letter3 Mar. in Selected Letters (2014) 54: It’s been so good shooting the shit with you.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 203: I’m gonna come over, we’ll shoot the shit.
1971		T. Lewis Plender [ebook] ‘Don’t shoot shit. I’m telling you, she was in here’.
1976		J. Heller Good As Gold (1979) 198: I’ll be shooting the shit with the Adjutant and the Bailiff.
1981		J. Bradner Danny Boy 95: Whole day he smoking joint, and shooting shit!
1991		O.D. Brooks Legs 45: You weren’t shooting the shit when you said it beat coffee.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 212: Give it to one of them clones an he slide over an shoot shit with the Gamer.
1999		S. Grafton O is for Outlaw (2000) 390: Maybe I’d accompany Malcolm and his girlfriend to the kegger out on campus, have a beer, shoot the shit.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 129: Him and Slide Henderson playing stud poker and shooting the shit.
2000		I. McDowall A Study in Death 101: They shot shit for a good half-hour on either side of the matter.
2004		(con. 1980) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 223: The gang used to meet there to drink cider and shoot the shit.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 314: He shoots the shit with his lovely assistant.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 235: I was thinking we’d go for a beer [...] Maybe shoot the shit some.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 93: We shoot the shit together before the madness commences.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 187: Folks tumbled tables, noshed and shot the shit.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 248: We sit there for the next few hours, shooting the shit.

to have a nocturnal emission, a ‘wet dream’.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1916		H.N. Cary Sl. of Venery II.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 50: Shoot the bishop nocturnal emission; masturbation.

see under blank n.

see under gravy n.

to ejaculate prematurely, and outside the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues VII 15/2: To shoot over the stubble (or in the bush) = to ejaculate before intromission.

1. to have anal intercourse with [tail n. (1)].

1980

Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 198: If he is not particular as to whether he gets her ’twixt wind and water, he may prefer to shoot her in the tail.

2. to copulate [tail n. (2)].

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

1. to ejaculate, usu. prematurely .

c.1468		‘Trial of Joseph and Mary’ Coventry Mysteries (1841) 136: A cockoldeis bowe is eche nyght bent. He that shett the bolt is lyke to be schent.
1602		Dekker Satiromastix II i: Heere is Sir Adam Prickshaft, a sentleman [sic] of a very good braine, and well headed: you see he shootes his bolt sildome, but when Adam lets goe, he hits.
1621		Middleton Women Beware Women III iii: I’ll not stand all day thrumming, / But quickly shoot my bolt at our next coming.
1640		Parliament of Women B4: Then rose up Mrs. Rattlebooby, and said I intreat that I may have a finger in the pye too as well as the rest: a fooles bolt (like my husbands) is soon shot.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 58: When I had shot my bolt she kept right on coming.
1973		(con. 1940s–60s) Hogbotel & ffuckes ‘The Good Ship Venus’ Snatches and Lays 87: He shot his bolt with such a jolt, he wrecked the bloody galley.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 27: There’s a fair risk you might shoot your bolt too soon.
1999		Indep. Mag. 19 June 35: That was in the days before [...] shooting your bolt meant premature ejaculation.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 187: shoot your bolt Male sexual ejaculation. ANZ.

2. see also SE phrs. below.

see under load n.

to ejaculate.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 1058/1: mid-C.19–20.

to ejaculate.

1879		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 51: There was a gay parson of Tooting / Whose roe he was frequently shooting.
1882		Cremorne I 28: Dolly was ticklimng my balls, till at last I shot my roe again.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see shoot in the bush

see shoot a bishop

1. to have sexual intercourse.

1950

(ref. to 1880s) in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 169: ‘And I’ll show you a game that we call Shoot the Cat.’ [...] Sung as above by Mr. F.H., Berryville, Arkansas, October 21, 1950. He learned it in Carrol County, Arkansas, in the 1880s.

2. see also SE phrs. below.

(US) to ejaculate outside one’s partner’s body as a crude form of contraception.

1952

(con. 1900s) in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 768: Stick it in her ass-hole, / Listen to her howl, / Waltz the hall and / Shoot the owl.

to ejaculate.

1927		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 26: When did Evelyn Nesbit Thaw really love her husband? When he shot White.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1058/2: from ca. 1870.

(US Und.) to break into a safe using explosives.

1928

J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 58: Not once during the two months [...] did we shoot a pete without a rumble (accident).

1. see sense 2b above.

2. see sense 7 above.

see sense 5 above.

to go (quickly) to a place.

1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 24: We’re shooting over to Bluecaster.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 116: Night after night [...] we’d shoot over to my place for a record-playing session.
1952		(con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 146: Let’s shoot over, it’s urgent.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 231: There’s this geez’ who’s been pulled, Terry. Eh, look, should I shoot over? I don’t want to talk about it on the phone.

(US) to leave (esp. hastily or suddenly).

1827		Long-Island Star (Brooklyn, NY) 7 June 3/1: The Capt. bowed, took another glass at the charge against him, and shot the pit.
1832		Albany Microscope (NY) 2 June n.p.: Alexander Douglass [...] ‘shot the pit’ for New York.
1838		Extra Globe (DC) 23 Apr. 80/3: Every friend of Mr Van Buren who had not ‘shot the pit’ voted in the negative.
1840		Standard (Georgetown, OH) 10 Sept. n.p./5: Of these, John W. Allen had voted a moment before, and shot the pit, on this question, to avoid voting.
c.1850		G. Thompson Anna Mowbray 11: Shoot the pit, lads – the hounds are out! Guinea Bill has betrayed you!
1860		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 3 Apr. 1/4: Some forty [Republicans] were not present at roll call [...] The whole scene was very amusing to the Democrats, who laughed to see their opponents ‘shoot the pit’.
1879		Buffalo Commercial (NY) 12 Sept. 1/5: [headline] Tammany ‘Shoots the Pit!’.

see sense 2c above.

(Aus.) will you pay for a drink?

1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 238/2: will you shoot? – will you shout, i.e., buy a drink for some one?

1. a gun battle.

1931		Colliers Mag. 87 19: She counted on him to prevent a shoot-out if he could; counted on him because he was the only one in the Lazy M posse who had his right senses.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. 22 1: I used to be a cop. And when I would be in a shoot-out, it was a fire fight for me.
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 34: We were traveling by stolen car, subject to a shoot-out at any time.
1975		D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 214: Spence was the victor in a shoot-out with his boss.
1987		Ice-T ‘Six in the Morning’ 🎵 Deuced it to the Bronx to rest our heads / Where a shoot out jumped off nine people lay dead.
1992		V. Headley Yardie 74: Reports of the shoot-out had circulated throughout town.
2000		Observer Mag. 9 Jan. 11: Orlando was killed [...] in an unrelated shoot-out.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 339: Kid has balls [...] How he went after Hastings. Could’ve walked into the middle of that shootout.

2. a decisive confrontation.

1971–2

C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 213: shoot out, n. – an extremely violent argument.

a strong expression of denial or refusal.

1759–67		Sterne Tristram Shandy (1949) 293: If she can, I’ll be shot, said my father.
1803		J. Kennedy Raising the Wind in Coll. Farces I (1815) 134: Mr Jeremiah Diddler—Dang it, what a fine seal! and I’ll be shot if it don’t feel like a bank-note.
1825		‘Thinks I To Myself, Thinks I’ Universal Songster I 25: I’ll be shot if the last boy’s nose belongs to the spectacle-maker.
1832		J.K. Paulding Westward Ho! II 97: I’ll be shot if he don’t talk more like common sense than many roarers I have heard make speeches in court.
1836		Marryat Mr Midshipman Easy II 57: I’ll be shot, but we’re in a pretty scrape; there’s no hushing this up.
1844		A. Smith Adventures of Mr Ledbury I 235: I’m shot, if it ain’t Letty brought home bad!
1853		Dickens Bleak House (1991) 87: ‘I’ll be shot if it ain’t very curious how well I know that picture!
1857		Trollope Three Clerks (1869) 549: Well, I’ll be shot if I guess any more.
1865		‘Mr Carlisle’ Stray Leaves 141: How I did grumble and growl [...] ‘I’ll be shot if you ever catch me here again’.
1868		C.J. Lever Bramleighs of Bishop’s Folly 163: If you utter any stupid rubbish against the Union Jack, I’ll be shot if I don’t drop you over the sea-wall for a ducking.
1876		Leeds Times 22 Apr. 6/3: Be shot if i quite know myself what ‘pheumatics’ means.
1878		J.H. Nicholson ‘Bunkum in Parvo’ Opal Fever 106: Alpine, amazed, said ‘Well, may I be shot!’.
1889		G. Stables From Squire to Squatter [ebook] ‘I’ll be shot if I budge!’ ‘You’ll be shot if you don’t. Gee up, I say; gee up!’.
1890		Aus. Jrnl 25 140/2: What the devil a man could see in a painted wench like that I’ll be shot if I can understand.
1904		Marvel 12 Nov. 3: I’ll be shot if you are not correct!
1920		Marvel 5 June 3: Shot if I know.

(US black) a phr. implying that the speaker has had the better of an opponent, verbally or physically.

1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ Novels and Stories (1995) 1009: I shot him lightly and he died politely: I completely outdid him.
1957		R.S. Gold ‘Vernacular of the Jazz World’ in AS XXXII:4 279: I shot him lightly and he died politely. I completely outdid him.

(Aus./US) involved in fighting, warfare.

1872		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 345: They considered it small credit to add to their trophies [...] the death of a man who was ‘not on the shoot,’ as they phrased it.
1880		Caldwell Post 9 Sept. in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 243: His arrest being determined upon, the police scattered out to effect the same. They were told Smith was a ‘bad’ one and quite on the shoot.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Jan. 11/2: The man who doesn’t want to go on the shoot is a very small person just now.

see under beaver n.¹

see under bird n.²

see under blank n.

see flag a bone under bone n.¹

(N.Z.) to break wind.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

(US) to extinguish a cigarette.

1932

(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 124: Studs shot the butt he’d been smoking.

see shoot the cat

(US) to defecate.

1909

L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 369: shoot a dog, v. To go to stool.

see under moon n.

to make (sexual) advances towards.

1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 11: She wondered if Doll Baby was shooting at Johnny Perry.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 58: Baby, you got th’ choice price ... evahbody is shootin’ at that fox.

(US black) to grab someone’s legs and bring them down, as part of a fight.

1994

N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 58: I learned how to shoot cuffs [...] a deceptive move, it’s done by faking a swing at the opponent’s face, then diving to his ankles to snatch his legs from under him.

(Aus.) to dismiss from a job.

1879

Cincinnati Enquirer 7 Sept. 10/7: Fired, Banged, Shot Out—When a performer is discharged he is one of the above.

1. to reject an invitation to dance or go for a date.

1941		N.Y. Herald Trib. 23 Nov. 2/4: A friend in the R.A.F. sends us a report on the current state of slang in the British Isles: [...] ‘I was shot down in flames’ means a man has fallen hard for a girl.
1945		Yank (Far East edn) 24 Mar. 18/2–3: Some of today’s teen-agers – pleasantly not many – talk the strange new language of ‘sling swing.’ In the bright lexicon of the good citizens of tomorrow [...] To be jilted is to be ‘shot down in flames’.
1965		W. King ‘The Game’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 301: The most difficult part of making the broad wasn’t the shoot-down.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 195: Turned down when asking for a date.
1968		Current Sl. III:1 11: Shoot down, v. To terminate a relationship with a member of the opposite sex.
1970		(con. 1950s) H. Junker ‘The Fifties’ in Eisen Age of Rock 2 (1970) 102: In that case, if he didn’t get shot down (stood up), he might suggest catching a flick.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 126: Two shattered egos, having been shot down a total of twenty-six times.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 247: Like some creep trying to grab a slow dance at a mixer and getting shot down by every girl.
1981		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 6: shoot down – for a girl to turn down a date.

2. to humiliate, to ridicule.

1940		Bulletins from Britain 11 Dec. 3: TO SHOOT DOWN IN FLAMES. To give someone a bawling out.
1943		C.H. Ward-Jackson It’s a Piece of Cake 54: Shot down in flames, hopelessly beaten at anything.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 138: Many of them are shot down by his sharp tongue.
1972		C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 224: Don’t let this little Flo bring you down, don’t let her shoot you down, man. You can make it.
1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 153: The Mexican’s moment of triumph is shot down in flames.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 34: Our overseer did seem like a bastard. Just the way he had gleefully shot down that late guy made me hate his guts.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 300: Krome’s tenuous martyrdom still hadn’t been shot down in a hail of embarrassing personal revelations.

3. to reject a line of argument, to overrule an opinion.

1959		Listener 3 Sept. 351/1: This is the way in which we shoot down cosmological theories.
1970		B. Seale Seize the Time 28: They tried to shoot Huey down by citing some passage in a book [...] He shot me down too, just like he shot a whole lot of people down.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 54: She has shot me down.
1982		J. Sullivan ‘The Yellow Peril’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] What I thought, and you can shoot me down in flames on this one if you like . . .
1998		I. Welsh Filth 247: If I had said, No way a uniformed spastic gets invited to a plain-clothes do, then Drummond would have been the first to shoot me down in flames.

4. to place at a disadvantage.

1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 80: Sweetheart daddy, you already shot me down.
1972		Milner & Milner Black Players 132: Red got busted and he got shot down by the Man.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 62: He shot Mama down within an hour after she met him.

5. (US prison) to reject a parole application.

1967

M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 342: ‘I hear the board dumped you.’ ‘They shot me down a year.’.

1. (orig. US) a Hollywood Western film.

1946		T. Heggen Mister Roberts 8: That miserable bastard had a chance to get a really good movie [...] and he took this damn shoot-em-up!
1959		A. Anderson ‘Schooldays in North Carolina’ Lover Man 92: ‘What’s on?’ Jimmy Clark said [...] ‘A shoot-em-up,’ Lightning said.
1999		Guardian Guide 31 July–6 Aug. 65: Paul Newman makes an impressive Buffalo Bill Cody [...] whose staged shoot-’em-ups defined the Old West.
2002		R. Gordon Can’t Be Satisfied 139: [T]he TV broadcasting a [...] shoot-'em-up.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 59: There was nothing on [...] except shoot-em-up cowboy stuff.
1966		G. & K. Swarthout Whichaway (1967) 6: [of Arizona] Its glorious, wild-and-woolly, shoot-’em-up past.
1999		Indep. on Sun. 18 July 21: They begged Hollywood to go easy on the shoot’em-up brand of summer movie.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] I had just survived a hectic full-on shoot ’em up car chase.

3. (US, also shootum) a ‘Western’ book or short story.

1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 265: I might as well read shoot-’em-ups, for all the value I get from what I do read.
1972		C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 86: Looks at baseballs games and cowboy shootums on TV.

(US gay) to flirt; to stare or glower.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 179: shoot eyes 1. to flirt 2. to stare [...] 3. to glower.

to aim for, to target; often as shooting for, e.g. he’s got 50 runs and now he’s shooting for a century; thus shooter n., one who aims at something or makes an effort, thus (US black) shoot for the side pocket and scratch, to fail in one’s efforts.

1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Dec. 14/2: Tim was wan iv the shooters fer the hand ’n’ affections [...] iv Mary Ann Lacy, widdy woman, 30 years ’n’ more maybe.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 19: They shoot for rolls of nickels and we shoot the roll. Millions!
1940		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 13 Apr. 20: I’m shooting for the side pocket but scratch every time [...] I keep my fingers crossed but stub my toes.
1958		Mad mag. Sept.–Oct. 15: Shoot for them big profits.
1963		T. Southern ‘Twirling at Ole Miss’ in Red Dirt Marijuana (1973) 137: Such girls are usually championship material, shooting for the nationals.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 226: As long as I know what I’m shooting for here.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 14: A thirdrate magician shooting for a comeback on the cartoon napkin circuit.
2000		Indep. Rev. 6 Jan. 10: I started writing songs when I was 14 and I’d say that Hank Williams and Bob Dylan in equal amounts were what I was shooting for.

(US campus) to defecate.

2003

Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 6: shoot for 2 – defecate.

(orig. US) to attack a problem head-on, to be a tough, purposeful performer; also attrib.

1932		Auden Orators II 66: Heathcliffe before you as the newspaper peer: I’m the sea dog, he said, who shall steer this ship [...], I succour the State, I shoot from the hip.
1951		Amer. Econ. Rev. 41 92: Sometimes problems can be studied at leisure. Very often, the executive has to shoot from the hip .
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 138: You’re shooting from the hip, Carlito.
1992		D. Pinckney High Cotton (1993) 53: His mother’s friends didn’t coo, pinch his cheeks [...] They came in shooting from the hip, as I saw it. He’d already tasted beer.
2000		Guardian G2 26 Jan. 9: Shooting from the hip! Telling it like it is!
2005		Guardian G2 5 May 4: Blair was back in punchy, shoot-from-the-hip form.
2008		Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 25 Sept. 🌐 Always remember, it’s fine to shoot from the hip, as long as your gun is loaded.
2011		Big Issue (Cape Town) 10 Jan. 43/3: [heading] Shooting from the hip.

(Aus.) to put in prison; usu. as shot in, imprisoned.

1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Aug. n.p.: (5) If you have another you won’t be able to get home. (6) If you don’t get home, and you sleep in the open, you’re sure to get shot in. (7) If you miss getting shot in you’ll be run over by a tram or fall in the harbor.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 187: shoot in Put in jail [...] From 1910.

see throw (it) into v. (2)

(orig. milit.) to fail.

1909

(ref. to c.1860) in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

to have sexual intercourse.

1699

N. Ward London Spy VI 140: She can show you how the Water-men shoot London-Bridge, or how the Lawyers go to Westminster.

see separate entry.

see under shot n.¹

1. to give everything one has, to be incapable of further effort.

1465–71		Mankind line 782: How sey ye ser my bolte is schett.
1577		Holinshed Irish Chronicle 15: But if I may craue your patience, to tyme you see me shoote my bolt.
1599		Nashe Praise of the Red Herring 39: And to shoote my fooles bolt amongst you.
1608		R. Armin Nest of Ninnies 15: You know a fooles bolt is soone shot.
1612		Chapman Widow’s Tears I ii: If she do, let them shoot their bolts and spare not.
c.1629		R. Brome City Wit III ii: I have charg’d you not to shoot your bolt, before you understand your mark.
1669		R. L’Estrange Fables of Aesop CXVI 109: What’s a Character of Honour upon the shoulders of a Man that has neither a Soul [...] or a True Sense of the Dignity, but a Mark set up for every Common Fool to shoot his Bolt at!
1675		F. Fane Love in the Dark III i: Hold a little, my Masters. A fools bolt is soon shot.
1708		Humours of a Coffee-House 2 Jan. 83: ’Tis plain we ought not to take it as an Affront, but Laugh at him [...] a Fool’s Bolt is soon shot.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 26: Miss, and you have shot your Bolt: I find you must have the last Word.
1749		Smollett (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas I 38: Every one having shot his bolt, the captain said [...] ‘I advise thee as a friend to joke no more with monks.’.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 271: The wits shot their bolts by turns, but they made no impression on the fool.
1886		R.L. Stevenson Kidnapped 278: I had shot my bolt and sat speechless.
1891		Kipling Light that Failed 165: You’ve shot your bolt here and it has gone home. Go away and do some work, and see some things.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Mar. 24/2: They went palpably weak several times and came again, though in the last few rounds of the 13 fought it could be plainly seen that Higgins had shot his bolt, and it was only a matter of time when he would reach the end of his tether.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Aug. 10/3: It does not know when it is done, and will jump on long after the equally well-conditioned commoner has thrown it up, and collapsed on its pilot. [...] Any intelligent judge knows from the stand when a steeplechaser has shot its bolt.
1915		Western Times 1 Nov. 2/2: Lord kitchener [...] expressed the opinion that Germany had almost shot her bolt in Russia.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 505: He shot his bolt, I can tell you!
1938		S. Beckett Murphy (1963) 16: Mr. Kelly fell back. His bolt was shot.
1940		S. Longstreet Decade 108: I’ve shot my bolt on that picture.
1952		I. Bolton ‘Many Mansions’ in N.Y. Mosaic (1999) 429: It was then she’d shot her bolt.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 30: Fellows who had more or less shot their bolt after saying ‘Eh, what?’.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 188: I’d come pretty close to overshooting my bolt.
1977		J. Langone Life at the Bottom 69: We have shot our bolt.
1986		B. Geldof Is That It? 203: We didn’t even bother trying to tour the States. After the Mondo Bongo fiasco we had shot our bolt there.
2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 471: I’ve shot my bolt as far as trying to escape is concerned.

2. (S.Afr., also shoot the bolt) to run off.

1958

Casey ‘Kid’ Motsisi ‘Mattress’ Casey and Co. (1978) 20: I shoot the bolt home and make for bed.

3. (Aus.) to make a confession.

1963

‘Geoffrey Tolhurst’ Flat 4 King’s Cross (1966) 12: Dad shot his bolt and told me that he was going to marry Beryl, the barmaid in the pub at the end of the road.

4. see also sl. phrs. above.

see under cookie n.¹

to dress up as smartly as one can, or generally present oneself in the most positive way possible.

1878		E. Yates in World (N.Y.) 16 Jan. n.p.: Adjust your curls, your linen shoot, your coat wide open fling [F&H].
1887		‘A Plain Woman’ Poor Nellie I 193: He was dressed in the height of fashion [...] and he ‘shot his linen’ in style.
1908		D.G. Phillips Susan Lenox II 38: He ‘shot’ his cuffs with a gesture of careless elegance that his cuff links might assist in the picture of the ‘swell dresser’ he felt he was posing.
1921		A.A. Milne Dover Road in Three Plays (1922) Act I: (Unconsciously he has shot his cuff, and sees suddenly the note he has made).
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 125: I could see that my words were not being wasted. Shooting my cuffs, I resumed.
1973		H. Leonard Da (1981) Act I: I had just propelled an erudite remark across the table and was about to shoot my cuffs, lose my head and chance another.
1986		E. Weiner Howard the Duck 27: There was Ginger, shooting his cuffs and making sure he could be seen.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 34: Charles Chelsea stood up, shot his cuffs.

(orig. US) to blunder so that one harms oneself or exposes oneself to further hardship.

1982		Lansing State Jrnl (MI) 27 Oct. 29/3: Headlee, GOP candidate or governor, has ‘shot himself in the foot’.
1999		Guardian Weekend 5 June 33: It means shooting himself in both feet.
2000		Indep. 7 Apr. 19: Bank on Barclays to shoot itself in the foot.
2007		Stage (London) 11 Jan. 9/1: One’s immediate reaction [...] is that as agent poor Barrie has shot himself in the foot.

see lose (one’s) lunch under lose v.

1. to die.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (US black) senses relating to the anus, based on the shape of the SE star.

(US Und.) to prepare someone for a given occupation.

1969

B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 60: shoot her out: train for some profession; a pimp shooting out a girl is getting her into his stable.

see under agate n.

see shoot a beaver under beaver n.¹

see shoot one’s bolt

see flag a bone under bone n.¹ .

(Ulster) to wipe out, lit. or fig.

1997

Share Slanguage.

1. to vomit [var. on whip the cat v. (3)].

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1830		Marryat King’s Own II 181: I’m cursedly inclined to shoot the cat.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 313/1: shoot the cat, (Voy, Accounts).
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1891		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 28 Feb. 2/1: People who ‘shoot the cat’ are not legally compelled to take out a gun license.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight.
1982		Barr & York Sloane Ranger Hbk 159: shoot a cat v. Vomit.

2. see also sl. phrs. above.

(US) to be quiet, to stop talking.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

1. to leave without paying.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues VI 1187/2: to shoot the crow = to run off without paying.

2. (Scot.) to leave; craw is Scot. pron.

1973		(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 97: He had been serving twenty-eight days detention in the last week of which he had ‘shot the craw’ and ‘jolted’.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 192: Whin the auld man shot the craw, ah managed to cajole ma Ma intae giein us a couple ay her valium.
2009		T. Black Gutted 96: Now you’ve rattled the filth it’s time to shoot the crow.
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: If he found out about this before I shoot the crow , then I’d be dead meat.

1. (US prison) to negotiate privileges, esp. a drug supply.

1938

D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 108/2: To shoot the curve. [...] 2. To connive in prison to secure certain privileges, often drugs.

2. (US drugs) to buy narcotics.

1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 108/2: To shoot the curve. 1. To purchase drugs from a peddler.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

to succeed in a very hard task, to achieve the impossible; given sexual context cite 1645 suggests a double entendre on gulf n. (1)

c.1645		J. Howell letter in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ (1650) II 40: Your last you sent me was from Genoa, where you write that [...] ‘Husbands get their wives with child a hundred miles off’[...] In Venice there also such things are done by proxy, while the husband is abroad upon the Gallies, ther be others that shoot his gulf at home .
1725		Defoe Voyage round World (1840) 16: Such a mighty and valuable thing also was the passing this strait (the Straits of Magellan) that Sir Francis Drake’s going through it gave birth to that famous old wives’ saying viz., that Sir Francis Drake shot the gulf; a saying that was current in England for many years [...] as if there had been but one gulf in the world .

(US) to excel, to perform outstandingly.

1974		D. Jenkins Dead Solid Perfect 56: If you couldn't shoot the lights out at Goat Hills, then you needed Pretty Boy Floyd or John Dillinger for a partner.
1999		Guardian G2 14 July 4: All he wants to do is shoot the lights out.

(US black) to be in a position to take action.

1944

‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

(US black/campus) to shoot baskets, to play a pick-up game of basketball.

1980		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 6: shoot the pill/peel – play basketball.
1992		Jose Chambers in Cruz Straight Outta Compton 8: Once upon a time in a land called metropolis where little boys expressed their feelings in one particular way, shooting the pill.

see under squirrel n.

(US black) to lead a promiscuous and varied sex life.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

(US campus) to make a derisory, insulting gesture by raising the middle finger.

1967–8

Baker et al. CUSS 222: Willie, shoot the To gesture with the middle finger.

1. to vomit.

1927

W.R. Morse ‘Stanford Expressions’ in AS II:6 278: shoot the works—vomit.

2. (also shoot the roll, …wad) to commit oneself absolutely, to make every effort no matter what the cost.

1917		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 26 Mar. [synd. col.] I put a dime. In the plate. And with a pompous air. Said; ‘Shoot the works’.
1922		S.V. Benét Young People’s Pride 190: There’s one thing I can’t do – and that is get away with a thing like that on false pretences – I’d rather shoot the works on one roll and crap than use the sort of dice that behave.
1923		E. O’Neill Hairy Ape Act VII : I’m reg’lar. I’ll stick, get me? I’ll shoot de woiks for youse.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 172: I decided to shoot the works with no more delay.
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 47: If he’d been at Caliente he’d sure have shot the works on that big chestnut horse.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 114: No doubt [...] he had shot the works about sunsets and fair princesses.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. 45: shoot the works, roll, wad – risk all; give all.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 5: We had a yen [...] to strut and act biggity and shoot the works.
1953		W.P. McGivern Big Heat 171: He had to gamble now, shoot the works behind his hunch.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 40: Wait for 1-2-3-Go! and shoot the works.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 76: When the menus came, Tess told Winnie to shoot the works.
2012		(con. 1954) ‘Jack Tunney’ Tomato Can Comeback [ebook] Braxton was shooting the works, trying to finish him.

3. to make a full confession; to speak candidly.

1925		Black Mask Aug. III 8: It was up to him to shoot the works.
1932		J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 336: to shoot the works—to tell everything.
1934		V.G. Burns Female Convict (1960) 52: C’mon, come clean, shoot the works, yer know yer can trust me, pal.
1937		W.M. Raine Cool Customer 125: Shoot the works [...] Hell, come clean.
1945		Lindsay & Crouse State of the Union Act II: You didn’t have to be afraid of shooting the works. That’s the way they want to hear you talk.
1958		(con. 1890s) S.H. Adams Tenderloin 258: Tell him he can shoot the works.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.

4. to die.

1932

J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 336: to shoot the works—to die.

5. to have an orgasm.

c.1935

‘The Real Silk Hosiery Salesman’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 49: Kiss me harder in the O hole honey, I’m going to shoot the works.

(Aus./N.Z.) to leave, to exit quickly; in milit. context, to go absent without leave.

1946		Aus. Women’s Wkly 1 Dec. 2/3: ‘Going through’ or ‘shooting through’ meant anything from desertion to evading a fatigue in prisoner-of-war life.
1951		(con. 1941) E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves 141: Might shoot through to Haifa.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 195: Why did yer have to shoot through, an’ leave me there like a shag on a rock?
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 18: ‘You aren’t thinking of derting, are you?’ [...] ‘If I wanted to shoot through I’d do it right here in good old Sydney’.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 122: We were only coming back for a day or two then we were going to shoot through.
1986		G.A. Wilkes Exploring Aus. Eng. 7: An Australian in England, concluding a conversation with ‘It’s after 5.30. I’ll have to shoot through,’ found the other party bemused, puzzled at the reference to firearms.
1996		K. Lette Mad Cows 193: Fathers in this area had shot through long ago.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers xviii: [A]fter which she shot through with a visiting Yank commerce man from Iowa.
2009		P. Temple Truth 119: Looking at Luke, weeks after his mother had shot through [etc.].
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 49: Promising to build luxury resports before shooting through with your money.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 93: ‘What do you know about Elsie McGee, the victim’s daughter?’ [...] ‘Shot through years ago’.

of a partner, to leave, to desert.

2020

G. Disher Consolation 26: ‘Heard she shot through on him when the kid was a baby’.

(US black/campus) to let down, to betray, to deceive, to victimize.

1965		‘SWAP Dict. Teen-age Sl’ in Ebony Mar. 98/2: Shot through the grease: given a hard time — as in, ‘Man that cat got shot through the grease.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 195: Shoot through the grease Lie.
1971		R.T. Sale Blackstone Rangers 124: ‘Man, don’t you know, them hotel people, they’re trying to shoot us both through the grease’.

to aim ruthlessly for a goal without reservation or compromise.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

see separate entries.

see go fuck yourself! under fuck v.