This mini episode teaches you the useful expression “shoot the breeze.”
Episode 154 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you how to use the expression “shoot the breeze.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
The expression I want to teach you today is shoot the breeze. Shoot the breeze. That's shoot: s-h-o-o-t. The. Breeze: b-r-e-e-z-e. Shoot the breeze. What does shoot the breeze mean?
To shoot the breeze means “to talk or chat in a relaxed way, to talk or chat about something that isn't very important, to have a casual, friendly talk.”
It seems we have talked about a lot of phrases that involve guns or shooting lately. I think there are a lot of these phrases in English, and this is a good one.
Here is an example of a situation where you could use the expression shoot the breeze:
“I stayed late at my job tonight. I didn't have work to do. I just wanted to stay and shoot the breeze with my coworkers.” I just wanted to shoot the breeze with my coworkers. In other words, “I just wanted to stay and have a nice, friendly conversation with my coworkers. We weren't talking about anything special. We weren't talking about anything important. We were just having a friendly, relaxed conversation. We were just shooting the breeze.”
It’s a good expression, and maybe you will have an opportunity to use it soon.