shoot through

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

shoot through (third-person singular simple present shoots through, present participle shooting through, simple past and past participle shot through)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see shoot,‎ through.
2. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) To leave.
   • 1977, Valmai Phillips, Romance of Australian Lighthouses, unidentified page:

     He did not mind the new store, but when some stirrer said that there was a motel coming, he shot through to find a better hole further inland, muttering that 'the place is getting as big as one of them southern city places!’

   • 1982, James K. Baxter, Howard McNaughton., Collected Plays, page 123:

     He shoots through to Australia, and I'm left with the kid.

   • 2008, Elizabeth Bruce, A Show Off, Just Like Your Father, page 68:

     But on learning it was twins he shot through to Queensland into – I later discovered – the waiting arms of his lover.

   • 2010, Stephen Lacey, Henry Loves Jazz: The Diary of a Reluctant Father, unnumbered page:

     What Father Nelson must have made of our all-too-candid (and slightly embellished) responses is anybody's guess, but it wasn't long before he shot through to New Guinea to work as a missionary with the kind of tribesmen who wear penis gourds.

3. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) To die.
   • 1957, Rolf Harris, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport:

     Play your didgeridoo, Blue / Play your didgeridoo / Ah, like, keep playin' 'til I shoot through, Blue / Play your didgeridoo

Derived terms

• shoot through like a Bondi tram

References

• “shoot through”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.