English · Idiom Historical

he shot wide of the mark

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

He was altogether in error. The allusion is to shooting at the mark or bull's-eye of a target.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

hoàn toàn lầm lỗi

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “he shot wide of the mark” mean?

He was altogether in error. The allusion is to shooting at the mark or bull's-eye of a target.

Is “he shot wide of the mark” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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