"shoot the bull" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shoots the bull",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shooting the bull",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot the bull",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot the bull",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "shoot<,,shot> the bull"
      },
      "expansion": "shoot the bull (third-person singular simple present shoots the bull, present participle shooting the bull, simple past and past participle shot the bull)",
      "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"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1976-1977, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure\nI didn't get what this group therapy was all about, it seemed to me it was just a bunch of people shooting the bull."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest",
          "text": "Shooting the bull with Benny and Elvira while Nelson skitters around out there in the lake of rooftops, selling used cars like hotcakes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To chinwag; to talk idly."
      ],
      "id": "en-shoot_the_bull-en-verb-q4MIHvXH",
      "links": [
        [
          "chinwag",
          "chinwag"
        ],
        [
          "talk",
          "talk"
        ],
        [
          "idly",
          "idly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To chinwag; to talk idly."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "shoot the breeze"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "vulgar"
          ],
          "word": "shoot the shit"
        },
        {
          "word": "throw the bull"
        },
        {
          "word": "throw the bull around"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-shoot the bull.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0c/En-au-shoot_the_bull.ogg/En-au-shoot_the_bull.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/En-au-shoot_the_bull.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "shoot the bull"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "shoots the bull",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shooting the bull",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot the bull",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shot the bull",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "shoot<,,shot> the bull"
      },
      "expansion": "shoot the bull (third-person singular simple present shoots the bull, present participle shooting the bull, simple past and past participle shot the bull)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1976-1977, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure\nI didn't get what this group therapy was all about, it seemed to me it was just a bunch of people shooting the bull."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest",
          "text": "Shooting the bull with Benny and Elvira while Nelson skitters around out there in the lake of rooftops, selling used cars like hotcakes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To chinwag; to talk idly."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "chinwag",
          "chinwag"
        ],
        [
          "talk",
          "talk"
        ],
        [
          "idly",
          "idly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To chinwag; to talk idly."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "shoot the breeze"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "vulgar"
          ],
          "word": "shoot the shit"
        },
        {
          "word": "throw the bull"
        },
        {
          "word": "throw the bull around"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-shoot the bull.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/0c/En-au-shoot_the_bull.ogg/En-au-shoot_the_bull.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/En-au-shoot_the_bull.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "shoot the bull"
}