Word.ws English Dictionary

like a shot

like a shot prepositional phrase: suddenly; without delay or hesitation.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (informal) suddenly; without delay or hesitation.
    • I went over the fence like a shot, and ran like one o'clock for the trap, cussing and swearing as I went.1899, H. G. Wells, Mr. Brisher's Treasure

Questions about like a shot

What does like a shot mean?
Like a shot means suddenly; without delay or hesitation.
What part of speech is like a shot?
Like a shot is a prepositional phrase.

Words near like a shot in the dictionary

  1. like a rat up a drain
  2. like a rat up a drainpipe
  3. like a ripe plum
  4. like a scalded cat
  5. like a scalded dog
  6. like a shot
  7. like a spare prick at a wedding
  8. like a stuck pig
  9. like a ton of bricks
  10. like a train
  11. like a wet weekend

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: like 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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