See shoot the shit on Wiktionary
{ "etymology_text": "Shoot the shit is a variation of shoot the breeze. Both of these expressions mean “to chat idly just to pass the time.” A form of shoot the breeze is recorded in a poem written during World War I by a US private, who described his corporals as sociable men who were much better at “breeze-shooting” than fighting or doing actual work. It doesn’t require much skill or effort to hit the wind with a gun, so the expression goes.\nShoot the shit emerges in the 1940s, notably found in a letter by the author Norman Mailer. The shit, here, may be a more intensive and alliterative substitute for breeze, with shit meaning “stuff,” i.e., any old topic. Ever the shit-talker, the character Holden Caulfield used a milder take on the expression, shoot the crap, in J.D. Salinger’s 1951 The Catcher in the Rye.", "forms": [ { "form": "shoots the shit", "tags": [ "present", "singular", "third-person" ] }, { "form": "shooting the shit", "tags": [ "participle", "present" ] }, { "form": "shot the shit", "tags": [ "participle", "past" ] }, { "form": "shot the shit", "tags": [ "past" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "shoot<,,shot> the shit" }, "expansion": "shoot the shit (third-person singular simple present shoots the shit, present participle shooting the shit, simple past and past participle shot the shit)", "name": "en-verb" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "verb", "senses": [ { "categories": [ { "kind": "other", "name": "English entries with incorrect language header", "parents": [ "Entries with incorrect language header", "Entry maintenance" ], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "English predicates", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with 1 entry", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with entries", "parents": [], "source": "w" } ], "examples": [ { "text": "We didn't do much besides stand around and shoot the shit, but it was fun to see him again.", "type": "example" } ], "glosses": [ "To chat casually; to gossip." ], "id": "en-shoot_the_shit-en-verb-ikuLIGyc", "links": [ [ "chat", "chat" ], [ "casually", "casually" ], [ "gossip", "gossip" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(slang, vulgar) To chat casually; to gossip." ], "synonyms": [ { "word": "shoot the breeze" }, { "word": "chew the fat" } ], "tags": [ "slang", "vulgar" ] } ], "sounds": [ { "audio": "En-au-shoot the shit.ogg", "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/16/En-au-shoot_the_shit.ogg/En-au-shoot_the_shit.ogg.mp3", "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/En-au-shoot_the_shit.ogg" } ], "word": "shoot the shit" }
{ "etymology_text": "Shoot the shit is a variation of shoot the breeze. Both of these expressions mean “to chat idly just to pass the time.” A form of shoot the breeze is recorded in a poem written during World War I by a US private, who described his corporals as sociable men who were much better at “breeze-shooting” than fighting or doing actual work. It doesn’t require much skill or effort to hit the wind with a gun, so the expression goes.\nShoot the shit emerges in the 1940s, notably found in a letter by the author Norman Mailer. The shit, here, may be a more intensive and alliterative substitute for breeze, with shit meaning “stuff,” i.e., any old topic. Ever the shit-talker, the character Holden Caulfield used a milder take on the expression, shoot the crap, in J.D. Salinger’s 1951 The Catcher in the Rye.", "forms": [ { "form": "shoots the shit", "tags": [ "present", "singular", "third-person" ] }, { "form": "shooting the shit", "tags": [ "participle", "present" ] }, { "form": "shot the shit", "tags": [ "participle", "past" ] }, { "form": "shot the shit", "tags": [ "past" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "shoot<,,shot> the shit" }, "expansion": "shoot the shit (third-person singular simple present shoots the shit, present participle shooting the shit, simple past and past participle shot the shit)", "name": "en-verb" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "verb", "senses": [ { "categories": [ "English entries with incorrect language header", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English predicates", "English slang", "English terms with usage examples", "English verbs", "English vulgarities", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries" ], "examples": [ { "text": "We didn't do much besides stand around and shoot the shit, but it was fun to see him again.", "type": "example" } ], "glosses": [ "To chat casually; to gossip." ], "links": [ [ "chat", "chat" ], [ "casually", "casually" ], [ "gossip", "gossip" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(slang, vulgar) To chat casually; to gossip." ], "tags": [ "slang", "vulgar" ] } ], "sounds": [ { "audio": "En-au-shoot the shit.ogg", "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/16/En-au-shoot_the_shit.ogg/En-au-shoot_the_shit.ogg.mp3", "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/En-au-shoot_the_shit.ogg" } ], "synonyms": [ { "word": "shoot the breeze" }, { "word": "chew the fat" } ], "word": "shoot the shit" }
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (65a6e81 and 0dbea76). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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