exchange of fire

exchange of fire

1. The act of shooting at each other by antagonists armed with guns.
   • 2002, William Alexander Binny Douglas, Roger Flynn Sarty, No Higher Purpose, page 98:

     It was the RCN's first exchange of fire with the enemy during the Second World War.

   • 2010, Stephen Banks, A Polite Exchange of Bullets, page 253:

     The duellists met at ten paces, and at the first exchange of fire Mr C. was slightly wounded.

   • 2010, Roger W. Shuy, The Language of Defamation Cases, page 19:

     A man's response to the threat of gunplay bore far more meaning than the exchange of fire itself.

• exchange fire