shoot blanks

verb — 2 senses

shoot blanks

verb

Etymology Likening the ejaculation of semen to bullets from a gun, as in ejaculating but no semen comes out; see blank (“cartridge that simulates gunfire”).

1

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see shoot, blanks.

2

Colloquial, Of a male To be sterile.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.