Word.ws English Dictionary

gave something a shot

gave something a shot is the simple past of give something a shot.

Meaning of give something a shot

Verb

give something a shot (third-person singular simple present gives something a shot, present participle giving something a shot, simple past gave something a shot, past participle given something a shot)

  1. To try or attempt (something); to give something a try.
    • I don’t think it will work, but I suppose you could give restarting the computer a shot.
    Synonyms:
    give something a go, have a go at something, give something a lash, have a lash at something, give something a try, have a try at something, give something the old college try, give something a whirl, take a crack at something, have a crack at something

Questions about gave something a shot

What is gave something a shot the simple past of?
Gave something a shot is the simple past of give something a shot.

Words near gave something a shot in the dictionary

  1. gave someone what for
  2. gave someone what-for
  3. gave someone wood
  4. gave something a go
  5. gave something a miss
  6. gave something a shot
  7. gave something a try
  8. gave something a whirl
  9. gave something up as a bad job
  10. gave suck
  11. gave the ax

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gave something a shot (page history and authors); give something a shot (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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