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To deprive of buds or shoots, as for training, or economizing the vital strength of a tree.

as, to discharge a bow, catapult, etc.; especially, said of firearms, -- to fire off; to shoot off; also, to relieve from a state of tension, as a Leyden jar. The galleys also did oftentimes, out of their prows, discharge their great pieces against the city. Knolles. Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect…

To make allowance for the dispart in (a gun), when taking aim. Every gunner, before he shoots, must truly dispart his piece. Lucar.

To shoot (a shaft) so as to pierce on the descent. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

One who dribs; one who shoots weakly or badly. [Obs.] Ascham.

To fall short of a mark. [R.] Often it drops or overshoots by the disproportion of distance. Collier.

heat and smoke; boiling water emits steam; the sun emits light. Lest, wrathful, the far-shooting god emit His fatal arrows. Prior.

To shoot forth, as rays of light; to beam; to radiate. Dr. H. More.

To discharge; to shoot. [Obs.] Then he another and another [shaft] did expel. Spenser. .

To drive from the stage by noisy expressions of disapprobation; to hoot off; to drive away or reject noisily; as, to explode a play. [Obs.] Him old and young Exploded, and seized with violent hands. Milton.

th century. -- Falling sickness (Med.), epilepsy. Shak. -- Falling star. (Astron.) See Shooting star. -- Falling stone, a stone falling through the atmosphere; a meteorite; an aërolite. -- Falling tide, the ebb tide. -- Falling weather, a rainy season. [Colloq.] Bartlett.

Any shoot or other thing by which hold is taken. The protuberant fangs of the yucca. Evelyn.

Prepared; ready. [Obs.] So fit to shoot, she singled forth among her foes who first her quarry's strength should feel. Fairfax.

A young, flexible shoot of a plant; esp., the long trailing branch of a vine, or a slender branch in certain mosses.

A kind of arrow for the longbow; also, the sport of shooting with it. See Shaft. [Obs.] Challenged Cupid at the flight. Shak. Not a flight drawn home E'er made that haste that they have. Beau. & Fl.

A small cartridge designed for target shooting; -- sometimes called ball cap. Flobert rifle, a rifle adapted to the use of floberts.

To shoot ahead, especially when going in stays. R. H. Dana, Jr.

To shoot into blades, as corn. The corn beginneth to fork. Mortimer. 1

Opening into two or more parts or shoots; forked; furcated. "Forky tongues." Pope.

To catch or kill wild fowl, for game or food, as by shooting, or by decoys, nets, etc. Such persons as may lawfully hunt, fish, or fowl. Blackstone. Fowling piece, a light gun with smooth bore, adapted for the use of small shot in killing birds or small quadrupeds.