Word.ws English Dictionary

shoot through

shoot through verb: to leave, to disappear.

Verb

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

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) To leave, to disappear.
    • ‘If I haven't got that money this evening I'll have to shoot through.’1963, Ronald Hugh Morrieson, The Scarecrow, Text Classics, published 2012, page 180
    • He did not mind the new store, but when some stirrer said that there was a motel coming, he shot through to find a better hole further inland, muttering that 'the place is getting as big as one of them southern city places!’1977, Valmai Phillips, Romance of Australian Lighthouses, unidentified page
  2. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) To die.
    • Play your didgeridoo, Blue / Play your didgeridoo / Ah, like, keep playin' 'til I shoot through, Blue / Play your didgeridoo1957, Rolf Harris, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see shoot, through.
    • A mostly novelized story shot through with some factual names and dates.

Forms of shoot through

third-person singular presentshoots through
present participleshooting through
past participleshot through
pastshot through

Words formed from shoot through

Questions about shoot through

What does shoot through mean?
Shoot through means to leave, to disappear.
What part of speech is shoot through?
Shoot through is a verb.
What is the past tense of shoot through?
The past tense of shoot through is shot through.

Words near shoot through in the dictionary

  1. shoot the lights out
  2. shoot the messenger
  3. shoot the messenger boy
  4. shoot the moon
  5. shoot the shit
  6. shoot through
  7. shoot through like a Bondi tram
  8. shoot trouble
  9. shoot up
  10. shoot wrestling
  11. shoot-'em-up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shoot through (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-shoot through.ogg.

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