shoot someone straight

shoot someone straight verb: to treat or deal honestly with; be truthful and upfront with.

Verb

shoot someone straight (third-person singular simple present shoots someone straight, present participle shooting someone straight, simple past and past participle shot someone straight)

(slang, transitive) To treat or deal honestly with; be truthful and upfront with.
- I left that meeting thinking well, you know, he shot me straight. He told me more or less where my future lies in academia, which is being average, and that is a perfectly noble pursuit.2014, Sebastian Gutierrez, Data Scientists at Work, page 115
- “Well,” I sat back smugly, “the first time we met you said you were going to shoot me straight, and you didn't. I have no time for that. If you're going to lie to me as soon as you open your mouth, then I don't want to know you.2018, Claire Cramphorn, The Dating Process: Alice

third-person singular present	shoots someone straight
present participle	shooting someone straight
past participle	shot someone straight
past	shot someone straight

From shoot straight, meaning to "aim correctly, aim right". Compare also straight-shooter (“one who is honest and forthwith”).

What does shoot someone straight mean?: Shoot someone straight means to treat or deal honestly with; be truthful and upfront with.
What part of speech is shoot someone straight?: Shoot someone straight is a verb.
What is the past tense of shoot someone straight?: The past tense of shoot someone straight is shot someone straight.

Adapted from Wiktionary: shoot someone straight (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “shoot someone straight.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shoot_someone_straight. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.