shooting match

[ shoo-ting shoot-n, shoo-ting ]

noun

1. a contest in marksmanship.
2. Informal.
   1. a number of persons or things collectively.
   2. everything involved with a particular matter:

      He decided to sell the whole shooting match—his house, furniture, and car.

Word History and Origins

Origin of shooting match¹

First recorded in 1740–50

Example Sentences

He would “end this affair with a bonfire and shooting match.”

From Literature

“That’s the whole shooting match, guys. When I talk about running football, I’m not talking about running the football in the first quarter, the second quarter. That’s not really what it is. It’s so that you have it to win football games. That’s where you can really play championship football, when you can complete the opportunity. And that’s what you saw today.”

From Seattle Times

It's a slippery slope from a shooting match along the lines of the film "The Favourite," to angrily then grudgingly working together, then to making out in the wreckage of a plane.

From Salon

American officials have voiced concern that Chinese and Japanese coast guard forces could be drawn into a shooting match as they patrol the island chain and are authorized by their governments to use deadly force to defend them.

From New York Times

One year his father had won a pig in a shooting match and raised it to a hog.

From Literature

Related Words

• assemblage
• assortment
• band
• batch
• bevy
• bundle
• chunk
• cluster
• crew
• crowd
• flock
• gang
• group
• lot
• mess
• mob
• multitude
• number
• pack
• pile