hit list

noun

: a list of persons or programs to be opposed or eliminated
broadly : a list of those targeted for special attention or treatment

Examples of hit list in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Beer and wine are also on the climate change hit list. Mike Hoffmann, Fortune, 22 Nov. 2023 In December 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray and at least 11 other senior U.S. officials were put on an online hit list targeting U.S. government officials who publicly backed the integrity of the 2020 election results. Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware, Foreign Affairs, 19 Sep. 2023 Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848–1849 by Christopher Clark Noah Feldman The Court’s Conservative Constitutional Revolution The bloc of conservative justices on the Supreme Court have dismantled many of the legal precedents on their hit list. Jennifer Wilson, The New York Review of Books, 14 Sep. 2023 Gutiérrez Soto fled across the border into Texas with his then-teenage son soon after their home was ransacked by soldiers and he was told by a confidential source that his name appeared on a hit list of military targets. Nick Miroff, Washington Post, 14 Sep. 2023 And in some of the darker corners of the web on some obscure fringe sites, there have been some threats and talks about the names as a hit list and basically threats potentially against these jurors. Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2023 With only one bird left on their hit list, the two flew to Nebraska in early May to chase down a Merriam’s. Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 29 June 2023 And that’s it: my personal hit list of the best bits of Pitti. Tom Stubbs, Vogue, 13 June 2023 The material was long on environmentalists' hit lists for dispersing widely across the landscape and for being notoriously difficult to recycle. Brian Clark Howard, Good Housekeeping, 22 Mar. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hit list.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1972, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of hit list was in 1972

Dictionary Entries Near hit list

Cite this Entry

“Hit list.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hit%20list. Accessed 3 Dec. 2023.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!