"shoot first and ask questions later" meaning in English

See shoot first and ask questions later in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: shoots first and asks questions later [present, singular, third-person], shooting first and asking questions later [participle, present], shot first and asked questions later [participle, past], shot first and asked questions later [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|shoot<,,shot> first and ask<> questions later}} shoot first and ask questions later (third-person singular simple present shoots first and asks questions later, present participle shooting first and asking questions later, simple past and past participle shot first and asked questions later)
  1. (idiomatic, US) To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences, without first adequately investigating the situation. Tags: US, idiomatic Related terms: first blood, guns blazing, preemptive, shoot from the hip Translations (To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences): eerst schieten, dan vragen stellen (Dutch), erst schießen, dann fragen (German), disparar primero y preguntar después (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-shoot_first_and_ask_questions_later-en-verb-p9uANP6R Categories (other): American English, English coordinated pairs, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English coordinated pairs: 49 51 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 53 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 48 52 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 45 55 Disambiguation of 'To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences': 95 5
  2. (idiomatic, US) To act boldly. Tags: US, idiomatic
    Sense id: en-shoot_first_and_ask_questions_later-en-verb-rGjn36Bs Categories (other): American English, English coordinated pairs, English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English coordinated pairs: 49 51 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 53 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 48 52 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 45 55

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for shoot first and ask questions later meaning in English (3.8kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shoots first and asks questions later",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shooting first and asking questions later",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot first and asked questions later",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot first and asked questions later",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "shoot<,,shot> first and ask<> questions later"
      },
      "expansion": "shoot first and ask questions later (third-person singular simple present shoots first and asks questions later, present participle shooting first and asking questions later, simple past and past participle shot first and asked questions later)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "49 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English coordinated pairs",
          "parents": [
            "Coordinated pairs",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "47 53",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "45 55",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences, without first adequately investigating the situation."
      ],
      "id": "en-shoot_first_and_ask_questions_later-en-verb-p9uANP6R",
      "links": [
        [
          "consequence",
          "consequence"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, US) To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences, without first adequately investigating the situation."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "69 31",
          "word": "first blood"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "69 31",
          "word": "guns blazing"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "69 31",
          "word": "preemptive"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "69 31",
          "word": "shoot from the hip"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences",
          "word": "eerst schieten, dan vragen stellen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences",
          "word": "erst schießen, dann fragen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "95 5",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences",
          "word": "disparar primero y preguntar después"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "49 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English coordinated pairs",
          "parents": [
            "Coordinated pairs",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "47 53",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
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            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "45 55",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To act boldly."
      ],
      "id": "en-shoot_first_and_ask_questions_later-en-verb-rGjn36Bs",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, US) To act boldly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "shoot first and ask questions later"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English coordinated pairs",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shoots first and asks questions later",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shooting first and asking questions later",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot first and asked questions later",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot first and asked questions later",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "shoot<,,shot> first and ask<> questions later"
      },
      "expansion": "shoot first and ask questions later (third-person singular simple present shoots first and asks questions later, present participle shooting first and asking questions later, simple past and past participle shot first and asked questions later)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "first blood"
    },
    {
      "word": "guns blazing"
    },
    {
      "word": "preemptive"
    },
    {
      "word": "shoot from the hip"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences, without first adequately investigating the situation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "consequence",
          "consequence"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, US) To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences, without first adequately investigating the situation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To act boldly."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, US) To act boldly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences",
      "word": "eerst schieten, dan vragen stellen"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences",
      "word": "erst schießen, dann fragen"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "To take hasty, immediate action with serious consequences",
      "word": "disparar primero y preguntar después"
    }
  ],
  "word": "shoot first and ask questions later"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.