shooting

Pluralshootings

1. 1
   gun attacknouncountable

   An occasion on which a gun or other weapon is fired, especially one in which someone is wounded or killed.

   Witnesses heard several shots before the shooting ended.

   A shooting at the festival sent the crowd running for cover.

   UsageUsually a shooting at a place, and shootings for more than one: a shooting at the festival.

   Note

   The countable noun names a single event: a shooting, last week's shootings. Its best-known compound is mass shooting, and Daniel Victor's 2023 list shows how fixed that term has become, citing the Gun Violence Archive's threshold of at least four people shot, wounded or killed, not counting the shooter.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of shoot, the -ing form used in verb phrases such as is shooting or kept shooting, in any of the verb's meanings.

   The volcano kept shooting ash high into the sky.

   Water was shooting from the broken pipe under pressure.

   UsageOften with a direction: water shooting from a pipe, flames shooting out of windows, ash shooting into the sky.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act or activity of firing a gun or other weapon, including as a sport at targets, clays, or game.

   He practices shooting at the range every weekend.

   The estate offers fishing, riding, and shooting to its guests.

   UsageUsed with no a, like fishing or riding: go shooting, take up shooting.

   Note

   Here the word is uncountable and names a pursuit, not an event: you take part in shooting, as you would in fishing or riding. It is not limited to firearms, since archers shoot at their club too. The word follows the act of loosing a projectile rather than the weapon.

4. 4
   filmingnoununcountable

   The process of recording footage on camera for a film or television production.

   Shooting wrapped on the final scene late last night.

   Bad weather pushed the location shooting back by a week.

   UsageUsually with no a: shooting wrapped, during the shooting of the film. For one session say a shoot, since a shooting suggests guns.

   Similarfilming, production, recording

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The act or skill of sending the ball toward the basket or goal in an attempt to score, in sports such as basketball and soccer.

   The guard's three-point shooting kept the team in the game through the fourth quarter.

   The striker has speed and vision, but his shooting from outside the box still needs work.

   Similarfinishing

   Note

   In sports writing the word names a skill and is uncountable: a player's shooting is accurate, streaky or still needs work, and modifiers say where the shots come from (three-point shooting, shooting from outside the box). That keeps it apart from the gunfire meaning, where a shooting is a single, countable event. Sports reports count shots, never shootings.

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