shootout

[ shoot-out ]
See synonyms for shootout on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a gunfight that must end in defeat for one side or the other, as between gunfighters in the Old West, criminal groups, or law-enforcement officers and criminals.

  2. Slang. any military conflict or skirmish.

  1. Slang. a high-scoring or intensely played game or tournament, as of basketball or ice hockey.

  2. Soccer. a method of breaking a tie score at the end of overtime in which five players from each team alternate shooting at the opponent's goal, starting from a spot 35 yards (39 meters) from the goal line, in an attempt to kick the ball past the rival goalkeeper in under five seconds.

Origin of shootout

1
1945–50; noun use of verb phrase shoot (it) out to settle a dispute with firearms

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use shootout in a sentence

  • I was right, so it seems, about getting ashore before the enemy could see to shoot out to sea.

  • And it carries torpedoes—iron cases filled with dynamite—which it can shoot out against the great warships.

  • No sooner was the ferry-boat seen to shoot out from the land than Boone motioned the whites to enter the inclosure.

    Wild Western Scenes | John Beauchamp Jones
  • From this line of ramifications (others) shoot out to left and right, much shorter and irregularly distributed.

    More Hunting Wasps | J. Henri Fabre
  • As soon as anything presses against the cells they shoot out their threads.

    On the Seashore | R. Cadwallader Smith

British Dictionary definitions for shoot out

shoot out

verb(tr, adverb)
  1. to fight to the finish by shooting (esp in the phrase shoot it out)

nounshoot-out
  1. a conclusive gunfight

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012