(intr) to grow or become taller very fast
(tr) to hit with a number of shots
(tr) to spread terror throughout (a place) by lawless and wanton shooting
slang (tr) to inject (someone, esp oneself) with (a drug, esp heroin)
Grow or get taller very rapidly, as in She's really shot up in the last year, and now she's taller than her mother . [First half of 1500s]
Riddle with bullets; damage or terrorize with gunfire. For example, I liked the scene in which the cowboy stomps into the saloon, gets drunk, and shoots the place up . [Late 1800s]
Inject a drug intravenously, especially an illegal drug. For example, The police caught him shooting up and arrested him . [ Slang ; first half of 1900s]
First recorded in 1965–70; noun use of verb phrase shoot up
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
