headshot meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

headshot

noun

Etymology From head + shot.

A portrait for branding or social media.

I went home, I changed, I went to Walgreens and printed out a headshot of me and signed it ‘from your favorite local news reporter,’ and I sat in the parking lot for four hours until she said, ‘Hey, your passes to go backstage are at will-call’.2023 November 6, Chris Willman, quoting Bryan West, “Gannett’s Taylor Swift Reporter, Revealed: Meet Bryan West, the First Full-Time Swiftie Journalist”, in Variety, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2024:

A gunshot to the head.

Smelling victory amongst the gunpowder Graeme started shooting off his mouth. “True Counter-Strikers like me don’t even count kills unless they’re headshots or a knife in the back of the nut…”2004 April 23, Computer and Video Games, number 271, page 24:

A one-page, double-sided resume of an actor, consisting of the actor's photograph (usually of the head and shoulders) on one side and their curriculum vitae on the other.

headshot

verb

Etymology From head + shot.

Video games Slang To kill (someone) by shooting them in the head.

SCOUTMASTER / HEADSHOTTED A SCOUT WITH THE BREECHSHOT.2013, Doug Walsh, Gears of War: Judgment, collector’s edition, Indianapolis, Ind.: DK/BradyGames, →ISBN, page 336:
Everybody knows someone who feels left out when video games are being played. Maybe your girlfriend is bad at headshotting newbs in “Halo 4” or racing against you in “Gran Turismo,” but she could definitely play this.2013 May 1, Matt Grippi, “Battleblock Theater is insane, hilarious fun”, in Daily 49er, volume LIX, number 601, Long Beach, Calif.: California State University, Long Beach, page 5, column 3:

1 more example

Workplace bouts of Novalogic’s tactical firstperson shooter Delta Force 2 further seeded the sense that cover was neglected. “We all were playing that after work when we were having the debate about cover and first- or thirdperson,” [Chris] Esaki says. “I remember very vividly getting headshotted when I thought I was behind a piece of cover, but it was clear in the replay afterwards that my head was above the piece of stone. I couldn’t tell, and that was the reason why we went thirdperson with Kill Switch.”2015 December, Tristan Donovan, “The Making of… Kill Switch”, in Edge, number 286, →ISSN, page 97: