target
Pluraltargets
Verbtargets, targeting, targeted
Pluraltargets
Formstargets, targeting, targeted
- 1A person, place, or thing that is attacked or chosen to be attacked, or that is criticized or made fun of.
The mayor became a frequent target of criticism after the budget cuts.
Celebrities are often targets for online ridicule.
UsageA target of criticism, a target for bullies or jokes; often an easy target.
- 2A mark or object set up to shoot at, used for practice or to test a weapon's accuracy or a projectile's force.
Each archer aimed at a distant target marked with colored rings.
The firing range had several targets placed at different distances.
UsageYou aim at a target and hit or miss it; on target means accurate.
Similarmark
- 3
- 4To choose a person, group, or thing and direct an attack, criticism, or some particular action or effect at it.
Critics target the mayor whenever the buses run late.
The drug targets cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue alone.
UsageDo not double the final t in targeted and targeting (not
incorrect: targetted).Similarattack
Note
Aiming has become choosing here: no weapon is needed, and what gets directed may be blame, a policy, a drug or an advertising campaign.
- 5
- 6A person or group that a person or organization is trying to hire or to attract as customers or an audience.
The magazine's target is busy professionals in their thirties.
Recruiters identified their targets before reaching out with offers.
UsageUsually a target for the buyer or employer: a target for Arsenal. Also in target audience and target market.
Similaraudience, market, demographic
Note
Sports journalism uses it for a player a club wants to sign. Phil McNulty, writing for the BBC in 2011, calls Gary Cahill "a target for Arsenal and Tottenham" in the same sentence in which Rooney is "on target". The recruiting sense and the shooting one live side by side.
- 7To aim for a specific result, amount, or level, making it the goal to be achieved.
Many central banks target an inflation rate of around two percent.
The company has targeted a 10 percent cut in costs by next year.
UsageThe goal follows directly, usually a number or level: target two percent inflation, but aim for two percent.
Similarseek
- 8To aim something, especially a weapon, at a particular point or person.
The gunner targeted the bridge moments before the order to fire.
Pilots target enemy positions using laser guidance systems.
UsageUsually the thing aimed at follows directly: target the bridge; the weapon itself is rarely named.
Similaraim
Less common meanings
- 9To produce program code suitable for a particular system or platform.
The build system targets several operating systems from one codebase.
Developers chose to target the ARM architecture for better battery life.
Note
In computing, the subject is usually a compiler or build tool and the object is a processor, platform or operating system. A cross-platform compiler can target several processors. The object is the machine the code will run on, not something attacked or persuaded, which keeps this use apart from the marketing sense.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A compiler can generate code for several processor architectures. clang.llvm.org
- 10The runs required for victory by the team batting in the last innings of a cricket match.
Australia set a target of 280 for the visitors to chase.
With two overs remaining, the target looked out of reach.
UsageOne side sets a target and the other chases it, or chases it down when they reach it.
Note
A cricket term for the score to reach, and it always belongs to the final innings. The side batting last chases it, usually a total set by the side that batted first, though after a follow-on the roles can reverse. Because it names a number of runs rather than a place to aim, it sits closer to the "goal" meaning than to the archer's mark.
- 11A thin cut or slice of meat; specifically, a piece of lamb consisting of the neck and breast joints.
Note
A British butcher's word that has fallen out of everyday use. Its specific meaning is a cut of lamb taking in the neck and breast joints, so a target of lamb names a particular joint, not just any slice. Anyone meeting it in an older British recipe should picture that cut, not a round mark.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The meat sense is British. en.wiktionary.org
- A target of lamb consists specifically of the neck and breast joints together; this meaning occurs in an older British recipe. archive.org
- 12A large shield, bigger than the modern buckler and similar in form to the Roman scutum.
Note
The word's history holds an irony here. Target began as a diminutive of targe, "light shield," yet this sense names a shield larger than the buckler. Francis Grose, writing in 1786, likens it to the Roman scutum carried by heavy-armed foot soldiers: usually convex, sometimes rectangular, more often rounded at the bottom. Now obsolete, it belongs to historical descriptions of armor, distinct from the small-shield sense.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Target derives from a diminutive of targe, meaning light shield. en.wiktionary.org
- This sense denotes a shield larger than the modern buckler. en.wiktionary.org
- Grose's relevant treatise was published in 1786. en.wikisource.org
- Grose compares the target carried by heavy-armed infantry to the Roman scutum. archive.org
- Grose describes the shield as generally convex, sometimes rectangular, and more commonly rounded at the bottom. en.wiktionary.org
- A separate small-shield sense exists. en.wiktionary.org
- 13A tassel or pendant ornament.
Note
A Scottish ornament word, now obsolete, for something that hangs and sways, with nothing to aim at or defend with. Its synonym targe shares a spelling with the old word for a light shield that the noun grew from, so context must keep the tassel and the shield apart.
- 14A shred or tatter; a torn strip.
Note
Next to the Scottish tassel stands this one: a torn scrap or tatter, used of rags rather than ornaments. It is equally obsolete and survives only in older Scottish writing. There, talk of worn or ruined cloth makes clear that no shield, mark or goal is meant.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Target also has an obsolete Scottish sense meaning a shred or tatter. en.wiktionary.org
- Older Scottish writing uses targets of ragged clothing. deriv.nls.uk
- 15In translation studies, the translated version of a document, or the language into which a text is translated.
- 16In mathematics, the codomain of a function; the object that a morphism points to.
- 17The tenor of a metaphor: the subject to which the figurative image is applied.
- 18The pattern or arrangement formed by a marksman's series of hits on a butt or mark.
- 19A small shield or buckler carried as a defensive weapon in war.
- 20A conspicuous disk attached to a railroad switch lever to indicate its position or serve as a signal.
- 21The sliding crosspiece, or vane, that moves along a surveyor's leveling staff.
- 22In heraldry, a bearing representing a buckler.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle French "targette," a diminutive of "targe" (light shield), which came through Old French from Frankish *targa (buckler). This is related to Old Norse "targa" (small round shield) and Old English "targe," going back to Proto-Germanic *targǭ (edge) and perhaps ultimately to Proto-Indo-European *derǵʰ- (fenced lot).
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Target comes from Middle French targette, a diminutive of targe meaning a light shield. en.wiktionary.org
- The French word comes through Old French from Frankish *targa, meaning buckler. en.wiktionary.org
- The word is related to Old Norse targa, meaning small round shield, and Old English targe. en.wiktionary.org
- The word goes back to Proto-Germanic *targǭ, meaning edge. en.wiktionary.org