Shooting
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 an instance of shooting with a gun or other weapon countable
"Police are hunting the people who carried out the shootings last week."
- 2 the act of firing a projectile wordnet
- 3 the sport or activity of firing a gun or other weapon uncountable
"Well, I've always been progun, you know that. It's... yeah, I think adding more guns into a situation is obviously the way to prevent shooting. I think in a way, if we take the guns away, the shootings may escalate."
- 4 killing someone by gunfire wordnet
- 5 a district in which people have the right to kill game with firearms countable, uncountable
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 the act of one who, or that which, shoots countable, uncountable
"the shooting of rays of light"
- 7 a sensation of darting pain countable, uncountable
"a shooting in one's head"
- 8 filming Philippines, countable, uncountable
- 1 present participle and gerund of shoot; forcefully projecting form-of, gerund, participle, present
- 1 Moving or growing quickly
"Shooting beams of light played over the sea."
- 2 Of a pain, sudden and darting
"I often feel a shooting pain in my arm."
Example
More examples"He came out shooting, same as you said he would."
Etymology
From Middle English shoting, schoting, from Old English scotung (“shooting”), from Proto-Germanic *skutungō, equivalent to shoot + -ing. Cognate with Dutch schieting, German Erschießung (“shooting”), Swedish skjutning (“shooting”).
Related phrases
More for "shooting"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.