subs. (colloquial).—1. A shooting party.
1573. MORE, A Dyaloge of Comfort against Tribulacion, fol. 33. We shall now mete for the SHOT.
1885. The Field, 4 April. At a big SHOOT in Warwickshire.
1887. NORRIS, Major and Minor, xxv. At the great SHOOTS … he was wont to be present with a walking-stick in his hand.
2. (builders’).—A vacant piece of ground: where rubbish is got rid of.
3. (American).—A fancy.
1847. ROBB, Streaks of Squatter Life, 143. That gal of old Fecho’s wur about the pootyest creatur, fur a foreigner, I ever took a SHUTE arter.
TO SHOOT A BISHOP, verb. phr. (venery).—To have a WET-DREAM (q.v.): also TO SHOOT.
THE SHOOT, subs. phr. (London).—The Walworth-road station on the S. E. & C. Ry. [A large number of workpeople alight there.]
PHRASES.—SHOOT as a generic verb of action is found in frequent combination: as TO SHOOT (JERK or WHIP) THE CAT = (1) to vomit; see CAT (GROSE), and (2) to sound a refrain in the infantry bugle call to defaulters’ drill, which, it is fancied, follows the sound of the words ‘SHOOT THE CAT—SHOOT THE CAT’; TO SHOOT THE CROW = to run oft without paying, TO BILK (q.v.); TO SHOOT HORSES (see quot. 1872); TO SHOOT ONE’S LINEN = to jerk and display the cuffs; TO SHOOT ONE’S LINES = to declaim with vigour; TO SHOOT (BOLT or SHOVE) THE MOON = to remove furniture by night to prevent seizure for rent (GROSE): see MOON; TO SHOOT ONE’S BOLT = to exhaust one’s credit or resources, to come to an end of things; TO GO THE WHOLE SHOOT = to risk all; TO SHOOT OFF ONE’S MOUTH (or JAW) = to abuse; TO SHOOT ONE’S ROE (or MILT) = to emit; TO DO A SHOOT UP THE STRAIGHT = to possess a woman; TO BE SHOT = (1) to make a disadvantageous bet which is instantly accepted (turf), and (2) to be photographed (photographers’): see SNAP-SHOT; TO SHOOT ON THE POST = to make a close win at the finish; TO SHOOT OVER THE PITCHER = to brag of one’s shooting; TO SHOOT ONE’S STAR = to die; TO SHOOT THE SUN = to determine the longitude (nautical); TO SHOOT ONE’S GRANNY = to find a mare’s nest; to be disappointed; TO SHOOT THE MARKET (stock exchange) = ‘to make a man a close price in a stock without knowing if there would be a profit or loss on the bargain’ (G. D. ATKIN, House Scraps); SHOOT THAT [HAT, MAN—anything]! = (1) a mild imprecation, ‘Bother!’; SHOOT THAT! = an injunction to silence: e.g., SHOOT THE SHOP; to SHOOT IN THE EYE = to do an ill turn; TO BE SHOT IN THE NECK = to be drunk; TO SHOOT IN THE TAIL = (1) to copulate, and (2) to sodomise; TO SHOOT TWIXT WIND AND WATER = to pox or clap (B. E. and GROSE); and (2) to do the act of kind: also as subs.; ‘I’LL (or MAY I) BE SHOT IF ——’ = a mild imprecation or strenuous denial. See also SHOT.
1695. CONGREVE, Love for Love, iii, 15, ‘A Soldier and a Sailor’ [D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1707), i. 227].
| And then he let fly at her, | |
| A SHOT ’TWIXT WIND AND WATER, | |
| Which won this fair Maid’s Heart. |
1706. WARD, The Wooden World Dissected, 45. ‘The Surgeon.’ His Captain, being disabled by some unlucky SHOT ’TWIXT WIND AND WATER, repairs to him for a Refitment.
1826. BUCKSTONE, Luke the Labourer, i. 1. Bob. He! he! he! I’LL BE SHOT IF Lunnun temptation be ony thing to this.
1837. BULWER-LYTTON, Ernest Maltravers, I. xv. ‘Excuse—’ again began Maltravers, half interested, half annoyed. ‘I’LL BE SHOT IF I do. Come.’
1853. DICKENS, Bleak House, vii. I’LL BE SHOT IF it ain’t very curious.
1855. Brooklyn Journal, 18 April. The prisoners … had shot Under-Sheriff Hegeman in the head…. Mr. Schumacher defended his client by observing that some of the prisoners’ attorneys got as often ‘SHOT IN THE NECK,’ as the Under-Sheriff did in the head.
1867. BARTLETT, Dictionary of Americanisms, s.v. TO SHOOT. A slang term of recent origin. To say, ‘SHOOT THAT DRESS,’ is meant to convey the idea that the dress is inferior; that it is not worth much; or, to use another slang expression, ‘it is no great shakes’ after all.
18[?]. Danbury News [BARTLETT]. Mother. Stand still, Tommy, or I won’t get your hair combed in time for school. Tommy (superciliously). Oh, SHOOT THE SCHOOL.
18[?]. New York Herald [BARTLETT]. One lady … with derisive scorn … observed in the language of the day, ‘Oh, SHOOT THAT HAT!’
1870. New Orleans Picayune, 17 March. I found this man dead drunk in the gutter … he offered to fight me, saying that he was not drunk, but only SHOT IN THE NECK.
1872. Echo, 29 July, ‘Railway Porters’ Strike.’ The prisoner urged the men to SHOOT THE HORSES in the vans … [i.e.] to take the horses out of the vans to prevent them from being unloaded. Prisoner was told if he had any grievances the SHOOTING OF THE HORSES was not the way to redress them.
1876. Ed. Burton’s Songs [BARTLETT].
| The slang the gang is using now, | |
| You’ll hear from every lip; | |
| It’s SHOOT THE HAT! and get it boiled; | |
| And don’t you lose your grip. |
1878. YATES, A Première at the Prince of Wales [The World, 16 Jan.]. Adjust your curls, YOUR LINEN SHOOT, your coat wide open fling.
1886. Daily News, 8 Oct. The boy who won never did anything in later life. He had SHOT HIS BOLT.
1887. F. FRANCIS, Jun., Saddle and Moccasin, viii. 136. If he could kill Indians SHOOTING OFF HIS MOUTH at them, he’d soon clean out all there is.
1887. Fun, 8 June, 246. A canny Scot was recently sentenced to ten days’ hard for SHOOTING THE CROW—i.e., ordering half-a-quartern of whiskey, drinking it rapidly, and neglecting to pay.
1896. CRANE, Maggie, a Girl of the Streets, xi. Youse fellers er lookin’ fer a scrap, an’ it’s like yeh’ll fin’ one if yeh keeps on SHOOTIN’ OFF YER MOUT’S.
1897. Pearson’s Magazine, Sept., 254. He thought he saw the means of getting square with the millionaire who had done him such an unscrupulous SHOT IN THE EYE.
1899. R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xxi. If it war n’t ready, he give the shove to THE ’OLE SHOOT.
