shoot the moon

Verb

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

1. (broadly, figuratively) To attain great heights, a high value, or a numerically high measurement.
   • Already orbiting at altitudes unimaginable a few short years ago, interest rates moved even higher last week and threatened to shoot the moon.1981 May 18, John DeMott, “Sky-High Interest Rates”, in Time
2. To achieve the lowest or highest score possible, such that the player is usually rewarded with bonus points.
   • In our last hand of pinochle, Leon and Janet shot the moon, taking all 50 tricks.
   • When Randy took the queen of spades on the last trick in our game of hearts, he shot the moon.
3. (slang) To abscond without paying one's rent.
   • So that is how the old rascal shot the moon. He is off on blue water by this time with his whole outfit, and will come back with a fortune. The landlord won't grumble, because Schoolbred must pay his rent, […]1908, Bram Stoker, A Moon-Light Effect
   • Perhaps it was Powlett's memory of Boswell's charm that caused him, when he shot the moon and moved to France to escape creditors, to take with him his father-in-law's papers.1950, Christopher Morley, Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763 (Preface)
4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see shoot, moon.
   • The Army, making its first attempt to shoot the moon, had spent weeks fussing over the Juno II, a 60-ton Jupiter IRBM with a spike of high-speed rockets.1958 December 15, “Juno's Gold Cone”, in Time