sharpshooter
Americannoun
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a person skilled in shooting, especially with a rifle.
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Military.
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a rating below expert and above marksman, assigned to one who has qualified with a specific score in rifle marksmanship.
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a person who has achieved such a rating.
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an athlete noted for having accurate aim in a sport, as basketball, hockey, archery, golf, etc.
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Slang. a person who engages in short-term business dealings with the purpose of making a large, quick profit without regard to scruple.
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a spade that has a very narrow blade, used as a garden or nursery tool.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sharpshooter
1795–1805; sharp (i.e., sharp-eyed) + shooter; compare German Scharfschütz ( e ) expert marksman
Explanation
If you know someone who is a crack shot with her rifle at target practice, you can call her a sharpshooter. Annie Oakley, the fabled markswoman of the Wild West, is a perfect example of a sharpshooter. The sharp bit is a bit of a stretch, but it is presumed to refer to the marksperson's eye; sharpshooter comes to us as a direct translation of the German Scharfschütz. Today the terms sharpshooter, marksman, and sniper tend to be used interchangeably.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The head is brown to black and has several ivory to yellowish spots, which helps separate it from its native counterpart, the smoke-tree sharpshooter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
And when Hoiberg recruited transfer sharpshooter Pryce Sandfort, he had an advantage: Sandfort had attended his basketball camps as a kid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 22, 2026
On a night the Storm were 1 of 9 from three-point range — the first time they attempted fewer than 10 threes since June 11, 2019 — sharpshooter Whitcomb didn’t attempt a shot.
From Seattle Times ● May 15, 2024
Over the previous few nights, a “pest control contractor” — a robustly bearded sharpshooter equipped with an all-terrain vehicle and powerful spotlight — had been riding through the Arid Recovery reserve, shooting cats.
From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2024
I bungee-jumped the lobby five or six times, did the waterslide, snowboarded the artificial ski slope, and played virtual-reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
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.
