Search the Dictionary

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

7th 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.

Full of shoots. [Obs.] Evelyn.

To shoot; to dart like lightning; to fulminate; to utter with authority or vehemence. She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique. Tennyson.

To shoot down of shoot at by a simultaneous discharge of firearms.

nch of old, we used to gall them with our longbows, at a greater distance than they could shoot their arrows. Addison.

A round gall produced on the leaves and shoots of various species of the oak tree. See Gall, and Nutgall.

To sprout; to bud; to shoot; to begin to vegetate, as a plant or its seed; to begin to develop, as a germ. Bacon.

To shoot or emit a flash of light; to shine; to flash. From art, from nature, from the schools, Let random influences glance, Like light in many a shivered lance, That breaks about the dappled pools. Tennyson.

Shooting, as light. When through the gancing lightnings fly. Rowe.

To shoot out, or emit, as a dazzling light. Every eye Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire. Milton.