Definition of Like a shot

1. Adverb. Without delay or hesitation; with no time intervening. "Come here now!"

Exact synonyms: At Once, Directly, Forthwith, Immediately, Instantly, Now, Right Away, Straight Off, Straightaway
Partainyms: Immediate

Lexicographical Neighbors of Like A Shot

like a chicken with its head cut off
like a chicken with the pip
like a dog with a bone
like a duck takes to water
like a hawk
like a hole in one's head
like a hole in the head
like a kid in a candy store
like a lamb to the slaughter
like a man
like a million bucks
like a million dollars
like a pig in clover
like a shot (current term)
like a ton of bricks
like a train
like an amateur
like an expert
like as
like as and
like as if
like blue murder
like cheese at fourpence
like clockwork
like crack
like crazy
like death warmed over

Literary usage of Like a shot

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Life of Benvenuto Cellini by Benvenuto Cellini, John Addington Symonds (1889)
"He had all the jewels shown me, and then I went off like a shot 1 to set myself to work. XLIV. During the time when Florence was besieged, Federigo Ginori, ..."

2. Good Words by Norman Macleod (1881)
"... like a shot." " What ?" said Lord Gait. " What ? " " It's all moonshine, you know. ... like a shot."

3. Letters of Thomas Edward Brown, Author of 'Fo'e'sle Yarns': Author of 'Fo'c by Thomas Edward Brown (1900)
"Dear me! our forefathers would have had it out like a shot—' growth in grace,' that's it, and what for no ? But we have got so gingerly about these things. ..."

4. Recollections of a Private by Warren Lee Goss (2002)
"... one of them was stooping down over his tin cup, with his legs apart, when whiz! went his coffee cup into the air like a shot. 'Who in thunder did that? ..."

5. The Visitor, Or, Monthly Instructor by Religious Tract Society (Great Britain) (1839)
"... may this splendid bird be seen, intently watching for its finny prey : the instant a shoal passes, singling out its victim, down it plunges like a shot, ..."

6. A Dictionary of Similes by Frank Jenners Wilstach (1916)
"Leaped in the air like a shot rabbit. — RD BLACKMORE. Leaps like a young horse Who bites against the new bit in his teeth, And tugs and struggles against ..."

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