pistol shotn.
/ˈpɪstl ʃɒt/, U.S. /ˈpɪstl ˌʃɑt/ 1. A shot from a pistol; (also) the sound of such a shot.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > action of propelling missile > discharge of firearms > use or operation of small arms > [noun] > discharge of pistol > pistol-shot
pistol shot1592
pistolade1604
1592 T. Kyd Spanish Trag. iii. sig. E4 Harke Gentlemen, this is a Pistol shot... And heeres one slaine, stay the murderer.
1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors 267 M. Mandelslo..kill'd the Leader of the Indian party with a Pistol-shot.
1734 J. Breval Hist. House of Nassau 86 The young Count Henry..received a Pistol Shot in his Reins.
1796 H. M. Williams Lett. France IV. 137 Several pistol-shot were fired at the president.
a1849 E. A. Poe Thou art Man in Wks. (1850) II. 420 The horse had come home without his master.., and all bloody from a pistol-shot.
1899 T. M. Ellis Three Cat's-eye Rings 122 Then there was a pistol-shot, and Clayside stood breathless over a lifeless man.
1932 W. Faulkner Light in August xiv. 305 The sound crashed into the blended voices like a pistol shot.
1997 J. Rothschild tr. P. Maurensig Lüneburg Variation (1999) 4 Dieter Frisch succumbed to a gunshot wound.., the result of a pistol shot fired at very close range.
2. The range of a pistol; the distance which a shot from a pistol travels.
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the world > space > distance > [noun] > limit of distance or reach > to which a thing may be shot > specific
bowshotc1300
bow-draughtc1400
buck-shot1447
flight-shot1455
gun-shot1532
bird bolt shot1570
cannon shot?1571
pistol shot1608
bolt's-shoot1677
rifle shot1803
gun-reach1825
rifle range1830
gun-range1852
society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > action of propelling missile > discharge of firearms > use or operation of small arms > [noun] > discharge of pistol > range of pistol
pistol shot1608
1608 J. Smith True Relation sig. A3 Certaine Indians which charged them within Pistoll shot.
1685 Mr. Travestin Acct. Proc. against Turks 6 Not above a Pistol-shot from it.
1741 S. Speed in Buccleuch MSS (Hist. MSS Comm.) (1899) I. 395 When we came within half pistol-shot, we hailed one of the French ships.
1799 M. Park Trav. Interior Districts Afr. vii. 101 They passed within pistol-shot of them.
1835 W. Irving Tour on Prairies 267 My object..was to get within pistol-shot of the buffalo.
1850 J. G. Bruff Jrnl. 5 Jan. in Gold Rush (1944) II. iii. 688 Two wild cats..ran up the trees, within pistol shot.
1900 J. Conrad Lord Jim xxxviii. 386 He anchored off the Batu Kring mouth within a pistol-shot of the fishing village.
1977 P. O'Brian Mauritius Command iv. 110 There she lay, her sails clewed up, right athwart the Caroline, within pistol-shot of the shore.
2003 Palm Beach (Florida) Post (Nexis) 20 Mar. 10 a You can light a match within pistol shot of the ships.
3. A person skilled at shooting with a pistol.
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society > armed hostility > warrior > armed man > [noun] > one armed with or using firearm > one bearing or using handgun > pistol
pistolier?1563
pistoleter1570
pistoletier1587
pistoler1590
pistoleera1679
pistol man1784
sightsman1790
pistol shot1832
pistol-toter1887
pistol-packer1899
pistolero1932
1832 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 31 198/1 To any other officer..I would not hesitate to make a more direct apology, but you know your credit as a pistol-shot renders this impossible.
1857 C. Kingsley Two Years Ago I. i. 17 Tom Thurnall went to Paris, and became the best pistol-shot..in the Quartier Latin.
1890 Cornhill Mag. Dec. 626 He must go out or be under a social ban. Out they go accordingly, and the trained pistol-shot kills his civilian opponent.
1949 E. Blunden Addr. on Gen. Subj. 24 He [sc. Shelley] was judged a horseman and a pistol-shot equal to his sporting friend Lord Byron.
1999 Independent 22 Mar. i. 7/8 Bentine was in real life a crack pistol shot.
Compounds
C1. General attributive (now frequently figurative with reference to a sound resembling that produced by a pistol shot).
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1726 tr. J. Cavalier Mem. Wars Cevennes iv. 257 The Wood, which good Luck for us was scarce a Pistol shot distance from the Bridge.
1730 A. Bower Historia Litteraria (1731) 1 No. 5. 401 A Blast and Smoak..which obliged me to keep at Pistol-shot distance.
1813 R. Wilson Diary 23 May (1861) II. 18 It was hot work: little more than pistol-shot distance for near two hours.
1900 Westm. Gaz. 17 July 8/1 They might urge them on with the pistol-shot reports of their long whips.
1942 Ess. & Stud. 27 59 And this pistol-shot style, bang bang bang, with its absolute certainty of detail, leaving the scraps of picture, like a jigsaw puzzle, for you to fit together.
1997 E. Braunwald Heart Dis. (ed. 5) II. 1050/1 Pistol shot sounds over the peripheral arteries (Taube's sign)..are usually absent in acute AR.
C2. Similative.† pistol-shot-wide adj. Obsolete
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1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World ix. 241 The mouth of this Lagune is not Pistol-shot wide.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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