point blank

See also: pointblank and point-blank

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Adjective

point blank (not comparable)

1. The distance between a gun and a target such that it requires minimal effort in aiming it. In particular no allowance needs to be made for effects of gravity, target movement or wind in aiming the projectile.
2. Blunt, outright.
   • 1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter XXIV, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC:

     Here I was brought into point blank collison with Rev. Dr. Cox, who made me the subject not only of bitter remark in the convention, but also of a long denunciatory letter published in the New York Evangelist and other American papers.

   • 1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter 2, in A Study in Scarlet. A Detective Story, 3rd edition, London, New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock, Bowden, and Co., […], published 1892, →OCLC:

     Again I had an opportunity of asking him a point blank question, and again my delicacy prevented me from forcing another man to confide in me.

Adverb

point blank (not comparable)

1. Horizontally (as the angle at which a projectile is launched); directly or straight (at the target).
2. (idiomatic) Directly; bluntly; without pretense or caution.

   I asked him point blank whether he was cheating on his wife.

   • 1896, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter I, in Tom Sawyer, Detective:

     There’s a neighbor named Brace Dunlap that’s been wanting to marry their Benny for three months, and at last they told him point blank and once for all, he COULDN’T; so he has soured on them, and they’re worried about it.

Translations

straight at the target

• Bulgarian: от упор (ot upor)
• French: à bout portant (fr)
• German: in Kernschussweite
• Italian: a bruciapelo (it)
• Portuguese: à queima-roupa (pt)
• Spanish: a quemarropa (es)

directly; bluntly; without pretense or caution

• Bulgarian: решително (bg) (rešitelno), категорично (bg) (kategorično)
• French: tout de go (fr), de but en blanc (fr)
• Hungarian: kerek perec (hu)
• Italian: a bruciapelo (it)
• Japanese: 単刀直入 (ja) (tantōchokunyū)
• Portuguese: à queima-roupa (pt)
• Russian: в лоб (ru) (v lob), напряму́ю (ru) (naprjamúju), в упо́р (ru) (v upór)
• Spanish: a quemarropa (es), a bocajarro (es), sin paños calientes (es)
• Telugu: ముఖం మీద కొట్టినట్లు (mukhaṁ mīda koṭṭinaṭlu)