Word.ws English Dictionary

shoot the lights out

shoot the lights out verb: to perform very well; to exceed expectations.

Verb

shoot the lights out (third-person singular simple present shoots the lights out, present participle shooting the lights out, simple past and past participle shot the lights out)

  1. (slang) To perform very well; to exceed expectations.
    • While the Scots weren't shooting the lights out in attack, they also allowed Belarus to be comfortable for large parts of the game. The fact they had 10 shots more than Scotland is a huge cause for concern.2025 October 12, Scott Mullen, “Clarke angered by Scotland on historic night”, in BBC Sport

Forms of shoot the lights out

third-person singular presentshoots the lights out
present participleshooting the lights out
past participleshot the lights out
pastshot the lights out

Questions about shoot the lights out

What does shoot the lights out mean?
Shoot the lights out means to perform very well; to exceed expectations.
What part of speech is shoot the lights out?
Shoot the lights out is a verb.
What is the past tense of shoot the lights out?
The past tense of shoot the lights out is shot the lights out.

Words near shoot the lights out in the dictionary

  1. shoot the bull
  2. shoot the cat
  3. shoot the five
  4. shoot the gold
  5. shoot the lens
  6. shoot the lights out
  7. shoot the messenger
  8. shoot the messenger boy
  9. shoot the moon
  10. shoot the shit
  11. shoot through

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shoot the lights out (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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