# Shoot the Breeze
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoot-the-breeze/461541
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 28, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoot-the-breeze/461541 "2008-08-28T13:09:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cider\_Depot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cider_Depot)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoot-the-breeze/461541/1 "2008-08-28T13:09:38Z")
My Manager called my cubicle mate and I into a meeting room, closed the door and said “Cider Depot, other guy, let’s shoot the breeze”. My cubicle mate screwed up his face and said “What does that mean, anyway?”.
I understand “to shoot the breeze” to mean to engage in casual conversation, or chat. But where does this expression come from?
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### Author:  [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoot-the-breeze/461541/2 "2008-08-28T13:21:35Z")
I always thought it meant that you’re not doing anything productive; if you literally shoot [at] the breeze, nothing happens.
FWIW, the local colloquialism is “peeling chile”. Even though peeling chile is quite productive, you can bullshit about just about anything while not really paying attention to what you’re doing.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoot-the-breeze/461541/3 "2008-08-28T14:10:50Z")
Nothing is being shot at. The expression dates from the early 1940s. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives 1941. It’s almost certainly one of many variants of shoot the bull.
Check the discussion on [wordwizard](http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4640&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a).
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### Author:  [@Cider\_Depot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cider_Depot)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoot-the-breeze/461541/4 "2008-08-28T23:50:32Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase]
Check the discussion on [wordwizard](http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4640&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a).
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the link. Interesting, but not quite definitive. Works for me though.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2008, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoot-the-breeze/461541/5 "2008-08-28T23:53:29Z")
**Exapno** gives the correct info. I can trace it as an Americanism to 1930, but that’s about the time frame.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shoot-the-breeze/461541/6 "2008-08-29T00:09:07Z")
_Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang_ compares it to several similar expressions, among them _bat the breeze_, _beat the breeze_, and _fan the breeze_. I think it’s clear that it relates to the notion of the air coming out of one’s mouth adding to the ambient stirrings. In this sense, it would be also related to _blowing hot air_.