Word.ws English Dictionary

shooting the messenger

shooting the messenger is the present participle and gerund of shoot the messenger.

Meaning of shoot the messenger

Verb

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

  1. (humorous, idiomatic, sarcastic) To blame a problem on whoever reported it; to hold somebody accountable for a problem because they brought attention to it.
    • I know you won't like this news, but please don't shoot the messenger.

Questions about shooting the messenger

What is shooting the messenger the present participle and gerund of?
Shooting the messenger is the present participle and gerund of shoot the messenger.

Words near shooting the messenger in the dictionary

  1. shooting the cat
  2. shooting the five
  3. shooting the gold
  4. shooting the lens
  5. shooting the lights out
  6. shooting the messenger
  7. shooting the messenger boy
  8. shooting the moon
  9. shooting the shit
  10. shooting through
  11. shooting through like a Bondi tram

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shooting the messenger (page history and authors); shoot the messenger (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:

Cite this entry: “shooting the messenger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shooting_the_messenger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.