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Glite Dictionary
shoot 'em up

shoot 'em up

1 8.1
A fast action game or movie with a lot of shooting
  • noun
  • /ʃut ɛm ʌp/
translation icon : juego de disparos
  • Give me a story with some meat and an emotional arc, and I'm sold, not just a brainless shoot 'em up.

Examples

  • I wanna see a goddamn big motherfuckin'... shoot 'em up, kill 'em, bang, stab 'em, crush... slice, kill, motherfuckin' boilin' oil.

    Slacker (1991)

  • Shoot 'em up

    BASEketball (1998)

  • But what doesn't make sense to me is when we turn that shocking sort of violence into fun, like shoot 'em up titles.

    Blog text (33)

  • Bang, oh * * Bite the bullet * Shoo-shoot 'em up

    Gunmen (1993)

  • Their first game for the system, Thunder Force II, was a fusion of two wildly different shoot 'em ups.

    Blog text (16)

  • Shoot 'em up!

    Aliens in the Attic (2009)

  • While he wasn't the only maker of the so-called "Spaghetti Western," he was indisputably its master, as synonymous with the Italian-made shoot 'em up as John Ford was with the classic American version.

    Blog text (12)

  • So, of course, when the top-ranked assassin in the world needs some R&R at his fabulous motel room, he likes to pop in the shoot-'em-up based on his favorite cartoon: Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly 5.

    Blog text (22)

  • The movie was an exciting shoot 'em up featuring intense gunfights and thrilling chases.

  • Many players enjoy shoot 'em ups because of their fast-paced gameplay and action sequences.

Synonyms

FPS
vsshoot 'em up
  • Jargon
9 5.1

A video game where you see through a character's eyes and shoot enemies

is broader covering both films and games and not limited to one viewpoint
shoot-'em-up
vsshoot 'em up
  • NSFW
1 8.0

A fast action film or game with lots of shooting and fights

is the same but written with different punctuation and spacing

How Violent

shoot 'em up
1 8.1
FPS
  • Jargon
9 5.1
family film
3 1.7

Surface Forms

shoot 'em up singular
shoot 'em ups plural

Morphology

shoot + 'em + up

The expression is directly compositional: 'shoot 'em up' = 'shoot them up' (shoot + them + up), meaning to shoot repeatedly, and the noun labels media characterized by that action. Despite its colloquial contraction (''em' = 'them') and informal register, a B1 learner who knows 'shoot', 'them', and the particle 'up' can derive the genre meaning, so it is transparent.

Etymology

The phrase shoot 'em up comes from a simple picture in old action and western films where people are shot again and again, with shoot plus 'em meaning 'them'. That's why it now means a film or video game with lots of shooting and gun fights.