shoot the chutes
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of shoot the chutes
First recorded in 1920–25
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.
“It must shoot the chutes, or nothing,” she was accustomed to say, in her cheerful, high-spirited manner.
From The Squirrel-Cage by Williams, John Alanzo
A man had to be very careful or else he would "shoot the chutes."
From Over the Top by Empey, Arthur Guy
So I took the twenty and went back to old Coney, where they shoot the chutes and loop the loops, and any man that's got a dime is as rich as John G. Rockefeller.
From Bat Wing Bowles by Coolidge, Dane
Her heart a shoot the chutes for sheer swoops of joy, her eyes full of confetti points, the surf creaming no higher than her vitality.
From The Vertical City by Hurst, Fannie
"Professor Cairnsley," Patty piped up, "did you ever shoot the chutes?"
From When Patty Went to College by Williams, C. D. (Charles D.)
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.
