target practice
23
3.3
- noun
- /ˈtɑrɡɪt ˈpræktɪs/
:
práctica de tiro
- At the archery field, beginners practiced their aim by engaging in target practice with foam arrows.
At first it was target practice and then it evolved into human murder.
- At first it was target practice and then it evolved into human murder.
Examples
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Bat Ayin has been supplied with guns by the army, which also provides for target practice.
Academic text (1996) -
You'll get riding and drilling and target practice.
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Looks like someone used it for target practice.
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The next day, I do some target practice, trying to figure out what happened.
Blog text (21) -
"Tomorrow, we go to target practice!"
Fiction book (1997) -
I promised your brother I'd pick him up, take him out for some target practice.
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Starting tomorrow, you'll be able to give your students target practice.
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The Arabs have weapons, and we are left with guns for shooting clay pigeons and target practice.
Fiction book (1991) -
Does any individual citizen need an 'assault weapon' for hunting, recreational target practice, or even for self-defense?
Blog text (5) -
The soldiers gathered early in the morning for their target practice session at the training range.
Synonyms
184
4.2
An event where people fire at targets for sport or practice
How Purposeful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: combining 'target' (a mark used for aiming) with 'practice' (repeated exercise) yields the activity of practising shooting at targets. This pattern is straightforward, follows normal English noun-noun compound logic, and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Target practice comes from a simple picture: someone aims at a fixed target and repeats shots as practice to get better. So, it means 'the activity of shooting at targets to improve skill'.