shooting gallery

noun

1
: a usually covered range equipped with targets for practice with firearms
2
slang : a place where one can obtain narcotics and shoot up

Examples of shooting gallery in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Mechanically, most encounters are just a series of shooting galleries, which doesn’t really play to Battlefield’s strengths. Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 9 Oct. 2025 Earth still lives inside a shooting gallery, with thousands of objects—totaling about 48.5 tons per year, according to NASA—entering the atmosphere. Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 27 June 2025 But even as their city becomes a shooting gallery, many local Ukrainians are refusing to leave. Dominique Soguel, Christian Science Monitor, 3 June 2025 The Ghostbusters shooting gallery attraction takes place in the team's firehouse headquarters (of course) and nearby is one of the most Instagrammable restaurants of any theme park worldwide. Caroline Reid, Forbes, 18 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for shooting gallery

Word History

First Known Use

1836, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of shooting gallery was in 1836

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Cite this Entry

“Shooting gallery.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shooting%20gallery. Accessed 22 Oct. 2025.

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