shootup (third-person singular simple presentshoots up,present participleshooting up,simple past and past participleshot up)

1. (intransitive, sometimesfigurative) Togrowtaller orlargerrapidly.

   Our operating costs haveshot up due to the fuel shortage.

   He was a small child, butshot up when he reached his teenage years.

   • 2024 July 29, Michael Goodier, “Olive oil fraud and mislabelling cases hit record high in EU”, inThe Guardian‎^[1]:

     As a result, prices haveshot up. One hundred kilos of extra virgin olive oil from Jaén in Spain cost €787 in November last year, up from €262.50 five years earlier, making olive oil a more attractive market for fraudsters.

2. (transitive) Tofire manybullets orshells at.

   The terrorists decided toshoot up a convenience store.

   • 1899,Stephen Crane, chapter 1, inTwelve O'Clock:

     There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. "Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranchshot 'emup[…]."

   • 2010,BioWare,Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts,→OCLC, PC, scene: Dossier: The Justicar (Commercial Spaceport, Illium):

     Shepard: What do they do here that you don't like, Elnora?
     Elnora: I thought we'd be flying around the galaxyshooting up bad guys and stuff, right?
     Elnora: But no, they just sell red sand and illegal weapons tech. They even smuggled an Ardat-Yakshi off-world.

   • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 27:00 from the start, inThe Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎^[2], archived fromthe original on3 November 2022:

     TheJohnston emerges from a smokescreen to find theHaruna at close range. So of course itshoots up the battleship's superstructure whilst ducking back into the smoke asKongō tries to take it out using its main battery.

3. (transitive) Touse up (ammunition) by shooting.

   Most of our ammunition has now beenshot up.

4. (intransitive,transitive) Toinject (adrug)intravenously.

   This place is always full ofsmackheadsshooting up.

5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically:seeshoot,‎up.

• shoot-'em-up
• shoot-em-up
• shoot-up

• Pushtoo,outshop,upshoot