"shoot the breeze" meaning in English

See shoot the breeze in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-shoot the breeze.ogg Forms: shoots the breeze [present, singular, third-person], shooting the breeze [participle, present], shot the breeze [participle, past], shot the breeze [past]
Etymology: A slang phrase, alluding to talking into the wind, it was first recorded in 1919. In the variant, first recorded in 1908, bull is used instead of breeze, and means "empty talk" or "lies." Head templates: {{en-verb|shoot<,,shot> the breeze}} shoot the breeze (third-person singular simple present shoots the breeze, present participle shooting the breeze, simple past and past participle shot the breeze)
  1. (idiomatic, US) To chat idly or generally waste time talking. Tags: US, idiomatic Categories (topical): Talking Synonyms: bat the breeze, chew the fat, shoot the shit, shoot the bull Related terms: chew the cud [UK] Translations (to chat idly or waste time talking): moure xerra (Catalan), parlotejar (Catalan), kletsen (Dutch), babbelen (Dutch), rupatella (Finnish), lörpötellä (Finnish), tailler une bavette (French), tailler le bout de gras (French), taper la causette (French), taper la discute (French), ein Schwätzchen halten (German), chiacchierare (Italian), 駄弁る (daberu) (Japanese), 喋る (shaberu) (Japanese), gadać [imperfective] (Polish), чеса́ть языко́м (česátʹ jazykóm) [imperfective] (Russian), pegar la hebra (Spanish), darle a la sinhueso (Spanish), iki lafın belini kırmak (Turkish), buôn dưa lê (english: sell melons) (Vietnamese), chém gió (Vietnamese), dal pen rheswm (Welsh)

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "A slang phrase, alluding to talking into the wind, it was first recorded in 1919. In the variant, first recorded in 1908, bull is used instead of breeze, and means \"empty talk\" or \"lies.\"",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shoots the breeze",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shooting the breeze",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot the breeze",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot the breeze",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "shoot<,,shot> the breeze"
      },
      "expansion": "shoot the breeze (third-person singular simple present shoots the breeze, present participle shooting the breeze, simple past and past participle shot the breeze)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
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        },
        {
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          "name": "Terms with Catalan translations",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "source": "w"
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        {
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          "source": "w"
        },
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Turkish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Vietnamese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Welsh translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Talking",
          "orig": "en:Talking",
          "parents": [
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "We were just standing around shooting the breeze.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Lethal Weapon 2 (motion picture), spoken by Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson):",
          "text": "Oh, I've just been upstairs with your boss, shooting the breeze… shooting his fish.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, The Ninth Gate (motion picture), spoken by Dean Corso (Johnny Depp):",
          "text": "Listen, I came here to do some business, not shoot the breeze. If you want to expound your personal philosophies, write another book.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To chat idly or generally waste time talking."
      ],
      "id": "en-shoot_the_breeze-en-verb-~Vo9b8E~",
      "links": [
        [
          "chat",
          "chat"
        ],
        [
          "idly",
          "idly"
        ],
        [
          "waste time",
          "waste time"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, US) To chat idly or generally waste time talking."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "UK"
          ],
          "word": "chew the cud"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bat the breeze"
        },
        {
          "word": "chew the fat"
        },
        {
          "word": "shoot the shit"
        },
        {
          "word": "shoot the bull"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "moure xerra"
        },
        {
          "code": "ca",
          "lang": "Catalan",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "parlotejar"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "kletsen"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "babbelen"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "rupatella"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "lörpötellä"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "tailler une bavette"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "tailler le bout de gras"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "taper la causette"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "taper la discute"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "ein Schwätzchen halten"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "chiacchierare"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "daberu",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "駄弁る"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "shaberu",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "喋る"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "gadać"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "česátʹ jazykóm",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "чеса́ть языко́м"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "pegar la hebra"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "darle a la sinhueso"
        },
        {
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "iki lafın belini kırmak"
        },
        {
          "code": "vi",
          "english": "sell melons",
          "lang": "Vietnamese",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "buôn dưa lê"
        },
        {
          "code": "vi",
          "lang": "Vietnamese",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "chém gió"
        },
        {
          "code": "cy",
          "lang": "Welsh",
          "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
          "word": "dal pen rheswm"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-shoot the breeze.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0f/En-au-shoot_the_breeze.ogg/En-au-shoot_the_breeze.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/En-au-shoot_the_breeze.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "shoot the breeze"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "A slang phrase, alluding to talking into the wind, it was first recorded in 1919. In the variant, first recorded in 1908, bull is used instead of breeze, and means \"empty talk\" or \"lies.\"",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shoots the breeze",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shooting the breeze",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot the breeze",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot the breeze",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "shoot<,,shot> the breeze"
      },
      "expansion": "shoot the breeze (third-person singular simple present shoots the breeze, present participle shooting the breeze, simple past and past participle shot the breeze)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ],
      "word": "chew the cud"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English predicates",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Catalan translations",
        "Terms with Dutch translations",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Italian translations",
        "Terms with Japanese translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "Terms with Spanish translations",
        "Terms with Turkish translations",
        "Terms with Vietnamese translations",
        "Terms with Welsh translations",
        "en:Talking"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "We were just standing around shooting the breeze.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, Lethal Weapon 2 (motion picture), spoken by Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson):",
          "text": "Oh, I've just been upstairs with your boss, shooting the breeze… shooting his fish.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, The Ninth Gate (motion picture), spoken by Dean Corso (Johnny Depp):",
          "text": "Listen, I came here to do some business, not shoot the breeze. If you want to expound your personal philosophies, write another book.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To chat idly or generally waste time talking."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "chat",
          "chat"
        ],
        [
          "idly",
          "idly"
        ],
        [
          "waste time",
          "waste time"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, US) To chat idly or generally waste time talking."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bat the breeze"
        },
        {
          "word": "chew the fat"
        },
        {
          "word": "shoot the shit"
        },
        {
          "word": "shoot the bull"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-shoot the breeze.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0f/En-au-shoot_the_breeze.ogg/En-au-shoot_the_breeze.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/En-au-shoot_the_breeze.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "moure xerra"
    },
    {
      "code": "ca",
      "lang": "Catalan",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "parlotejar"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "kletsen"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "babbelen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "rupatella"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "lörpötellä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "tailler une bavette"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "tailler le bout de gras"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "taper la causette"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "taper la discute"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "ein Schwätzchen halten"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "chiacchierare"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "daberu",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "駄弁る"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "shaberu",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "喋る"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "gadać"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "česátʹ jazykóm",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "чеса́ть языко́м"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "pegar la hebra"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "darle a la sinhueso"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "iki lafın belini kırmak"
    },
    {
      "code": "vi",
      "english": "sell melons",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "buôn dưa lê"
    },
    {
      "code": "vi",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "chém gió"
    },
    {
      "code": "cy",
      "lang": "Welsh",
      "sense": "to chat idly or waste time talking",
      "word": "dal pen rheswm"
    }
  ],
  "word": "shoot the breeze"
}

Download raw JSONL data for shoot the breeze meaning in English (5.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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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