[Ads-l] antedating, clarifying "shoot the works"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED: 1922

(1901 headline puns on the arrival of engineers to oversee Fourth of July
fireworks.)


1901 _Colorado Springs Gazette_ (July 29) 5:  All the Way from Buffalo to
Shoot the Works.

1907 _Grand Forks [N.D.] Daily Herald_  (Nov. 19) 9: Munsen yelled to the
engineer yo "shoot the works" and jump.

1915 _Atlanta Journal_ (Aug. 8) (Feature Sec.) 7: Forty bucks was lyin'
dar, hard an' roun' an' cole,/ "Shoot de wuks!" yell Ebenezer, den
snake-eyes roll.

1922 _Buffalo [N.Y] Evening News_  (Oct. 4)  21:  Eight's me point. Shoot
tha woiks. All or nottin'.

OED misses this nuance, 'to bet all on a throw of the dice; (hence) to do
or risk everything one can'.'

JL

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