shoot the breeze

S

shoot the breeze
also, shoot the bull

Meaning

  • spend time chatting, useless talking or chit-chat
  • idle talking
  • talking aimlessly without any serious topic
  • talking to your friends in an informal way
  • to discuss unimportant things or exaggerate the truth

Example Sentences

  1. They have spent the whole afternoon just shooting the breeze in the office.
  2. My customers always want to shoot the breeze with me before they say what they were coming to purchase.
  3. When Ken passed me on my desk, we shot the breeze for a while.
  4. The afternoon session is always dull; I always spend the better part of it shooting the bull with my friends.
  5. They always expect me to sit and shoot the breeze with them for hours at the weekend.
  6. Never take his talks seriously; he always likes to shoot the bull.
  7. Instead of shooting the breeze for so long, she should get to work.

Origin

This idiomatic phrase, “shoot the breeze,” originated in the United States in the early 1900s. A breeze is a light wind, and that’s why the word is used in this phrase to denote a light talk, idle talk, unimportant conversation, or a rumor. To shoot the breeze is used to point out to an idle talk or an informal chat about inconsequential things—talking just to pass the time or entertain each other. Sometimes, you can find that “bull” is used instead of “breeze,” but the meaning remains the same. “Shoot the bull” developed from the American institution known as a “bull session,” a gathering of men and it was first recorded in 1908 in prints.

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