Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SHOOT, v.i.

1. To perform the act of discharging, sending with force, or driving any thing by means of an engine or instrument; as, to shoot at a target or mark. When you shoot and shut one eye. – Prior. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him. – Gen. xlix.
2. To germinate; to bud; to sprout; to send forth branches. Onions, as they hang, will shoot forth. – Bacon. But the wild olive shouts and shades the ungrateful plain. – Dryden. Delightful task, / To teach the young idea how to shoot. – Thomson.
3. To form by shooting, or by an arrangement of particles into spiculae. Metals shoot into crystals. Every salt shoots into crystals of a determinate form.
4. To be emitted, sent forth or driven along. There shot a streaming lamp along the sky. – Dryden.
5. To protuberate; to be pushed out; to jut; to project. The land shoots into a promontory.
6. To pass, as an arrow or pointed instrument; to penetrate. Thy words shoot through my heart. – Addison.
7. To grow rapidly; to become by rapid growth. The boy soon shoots up to a man. He'll soon shoot up a hero. – Dryden.
8. To move with velocity; as, a shooting star.
9. To feel a quick darting pain. My temples shoot. To shoot ahead, to outstrip in running, flying or sailing.