shootout

[ shoot-out ]

See synonyms for shootout on Thesaurus.com

noun

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.
Slang. any military conflict or skirmish.

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

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. 2023

How to use shootout in a sentence

Control Room Sook Shoot Out -- some editorial changes and some VFX muzzle flashes.
Sony Emails Show How the Studio Plans to Censor Kim Jong Un Assassination Comedy ‘The Interview’ | William Boot | December 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
It looks like the shoot-out at the OK Corral in a leafy Eindhoven suburb—but nobody seems to be a very good shot.
Dutch Biker Gangs Vs. ISIS | Nadette De Visser, Christopher Dickey | December 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
That is an astonishing spell of impregnability, one that looked set to last through to a penalty shoot-out tonight.
Germany Wins, World Cup Justice Is Served | Tunku Varadarajan | July 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
And the least HBO could do is let us see his eyeballs shoot out of his head or something to mark the occasion.
Life After TV Death: How Shows Like ‘Game of Thrones’ Kill Your Favorite Characters | Phillip Maciak | April 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
It ended, magnificently, in a shoot-out between the women in a fairground hall of mirrors.
How the Daytime Soap Came Back From the Dead | Tim Teeman | January 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST

I was right, so it seems, about getting ashore before the enemy could see to shoot out to sea.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I | Ian Hamilton
And it carries torpedoes—iron cases filled with dynamite—which it can shoot out against the great warships.
Stories of Our Naval Heroes | Various
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)

to fight to the finish by shooting (esp in the phrase shoot it out)

nounshoot-out

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

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