point-blank
adjective /ˌpɔɪnt ˈblæŋk/
/ˌpɔɪnt ˈblæŋk/
[only before noun]- (of a shot) fired with the gun touching or very close to the person or thing it is aimed at
- The officer was shot dead at point-blank range.
- (of something that is said) very definite and direct and not very polite synonym blunt
- a point-blank refusal
Word Originlate 16th cent.: probably from point + blank in the contemporaneous sense ‘white spot in the centre of a target’.