shoot the bull

English

Pronunciation
  • Audio (AU)(file)

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To chinwag; to talk idly.
    Synonyms: shoot the breeze, (vulgar) shoot the shit, throw the bull, throw the bull around
    • 1976-1977, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
      I didn't get what this group therapy was all about, it seemed to me it was just a bunch of people shooting the bull.
    • 1990, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest:
      Shooting the bull with Benny and Elvira while Nelson skitters around out there in the lake of rooftops, selling used cars like hotcakes.
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