shoot to kill

phrase

: to shoot a gun with the purpose of killing someone

Examples of shoot to kill in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

They are equipped with rockets to shoot to kill at any second. — Literary Hub, 10 Nov. 2025

The idea was to shoot to kill but also to scare them off, to move them away from the most densely populated areas. — Literary Hub, 18 July 2025

And even when the distressed person threatens them with a weapon, police don’t always shoot to kill; in the case of Faisal, an officer fired only after a nonlethal sponge round failed to slow him. — Laura Crimaldi, BostonGlobe.com, 3 June 2023

Another military intervention by Moscow in another former Soviet state with clear echoes of the Cold War. Bolstered by the Kremlin, the president's regained a fragile control, ordering his forces to shoot to kill. — ABC News, 9 Jan. 2022

The act grants soldiers wide-ranging powers to search, detain, arrest or shoot to kill people and gives them immunity from prosecution unless the government makes an exception, which rarely occurs. — Washington Post, 6 Dec. 2021

Rhymes for shoot to kill

• basophil
• carboxyl
• daffodil
• neutrophil
• overkill
• overspill
• anthill
• backfill
• bluegill
• crossbill
• distil
• distill