Dictionary

straight shooter en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) A person who is honest and forthright.
   • The image he projects seems at home here in Iowa: the straight-shooter, the truth-teller, the unadorned Kansan from the prairie. 1996 February 12, Katharine Q. Seelye, “Politics: Bob Dole—In No-Frills Message, Modesty Vies With Pride in Service”, in New York Times, retrieved 04 Sep 2012:
   • And those lucky enough to be around him always knew who he was too — a gentleman of extraordinary character, a straight shooter and a pioneering journalist destined to be remembered. 2006 December 25, Dan Rather, “A Fond Farewell: Ed Bradley”, in Time:
2. (idiomatic) A person who is blunt, sometimes to the point of being harsh or offensive.
   • A 1934 journalism graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Fleming, who has a reputation as an abrasive straight shooter, was a newspaper and magazine correspondent before joining ABC in 1957. 1966 February 18, “The Administration: Unburdening Bill”, in Time:
   • Keating . . . was an impatient taskmaster, but he was also a straight shooter who never held back a punch. . . . "Mitchell, you look like crap." 2008, David Michaels, Tom Clancy, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, →ISBN, page 177:
   • [B]aseball's equivalent of John Wayne, one Dallas Green, will likely come in, take some players by the scruffs of their necks, tell them to shut up and play in a fundamentally sound way. . . . The human boom box, the relentless straight shooter, will keep all comers more than well aware of where he stands. 1991 September 11, Claire Smith, “On Baseball: Green Could Mean Luck for the Mets”, in New York Times, retrieved 04 Sep 2012:
3. (informal, qualifier:recreational drugs) A type of pipe used for smoking cocaine.
   • This homemade crack tool was known as a straight shooter, which sped up the effects of smoking rock cocaine allowing it to reach the lungs faster. 2007, Martin L. Stockton, Hustler's Greed, →ISBN, page 3:

Forms

Relateds

straight-shooting · shoot someone straight · tell it like it is · play it straight · straight talk

Synonyms

straight talker · square shooter (person who is honest and forthright)