draw a bead on

1. 1.

   aim with a gun

   “The hunter drew a bead on the rabbit”

   Broaderaim
2. 2.

   have an ambitious plan or a lofty goal

   Synonymsaspireaimshoot for

   Broaderplan

   Narrowerovershoot

Questions about draw a bead on

What does draw a bead on mean?

draw a bead on means "aim with a gun". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for draw a bead on?

Close synonyms include aspire, aim, shoot for. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is draw a bead on a common word?

draw a bead on is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.