Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SHOT, n. [Sax. scyt; D. schoot, schot. See Shoot and Scot.]

1. The act of shooting; discharge of a missile weapon. He caused twenty shot of his greatest cannon to be made at the king's army. Clarendon. Note. The plural shots, may be used, but shot is used in both numbers.
2. A missile weapon, particularly a ball or bullet. Shot is properly whatever is discharged from fire-arms or cannon by the force of gunpowder. Shot used in war is of various kinds; as, round shot or balls; those for cannon made of iron, those for muskets and pistols, of lead. Secondly, double headed shot or bar shot, consisting of a bar with a round head at each end. Thirdly, chain-shot, consisting of two balls chained together. Fourthly, grape-shot, consisting of a number of balls bound together with a cord in canvass on an iron bottom. Fifthly, case shot or canister shot, consisting of a great number of small bullets in a cylindrical tin box. Sixthly, langrel or langrage, which consists of pieces of iron of any kind or shape. Small shot, denotes musket balls. – Mar. Dict.
3. Small globular masses of lead, used for killing fowls and other small animals. These are not called balls or bullets.
4. The flight of a missile weapon, or the distance which it passes from the engine; as, a cannon shot; a musket shot; a pistol shot; a bow shot.
5. A reckoning; charge or proportional share of expense. [See Scot.] Shot of a cable, in seamen's language, the splising of two cables together; or the whole length of two cables thus united. A ship will ride easier in deep water with one shot of cable thus lengthened, than with three short cables. – Encyc.