A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

shoot the crow • stone the crows
shoot the crow —(sl.) 
1
. depart hurriedly; make off: There’ll
only be his mother in the house. His father shot the crow years
ago. 2. sneak off without paying: A canny Scot was sentenced
to ten days’ hard for shooting the crow — ordering whiskey
and neglecting to pay.
stone the crows —(sl., also: stone me) is used as an exclamation
of surprise, etc.: “Stone the Crows!,” shouted Peter Grant,
when he first heard this splendid young Scottish band roaring
into action.
shoot-up • upshot
shoot-up —
1
. a furious exchange of shooting; a gun battle:
Munn was nearly killed in a shoot-up in the streets of Montreal
on the very day of his landing. 2. (of prices, etc.) a quick or
sudden rise: We haven’t seen the shoot-up in prices like other
areas have, and that’s helped quite a bit. 3. (sl.) a drug injec-
tion: They looked like a couple of drug addicts meeting for a
shoot-up in a condemned building.
upshot—the end result or conclusion of some course of
action: We had a talk, and the upshot was that if I couldn’t
feel better through prayer, it was my fault because my faith
wasn’t strong enough.
short arm • short hand
short arm —a small inlet of a river: There are overnight
mooring available in the short arm on east bank immediately
above Diglis Lock.
short hand —
1
. a quick way of writing which uses signs
instead of letters or words: I was confronted with an old copy
of the Academy, with some shorthand notes on the margin.
2. the hand of a clock or watch which indicates the hours:
When it is one o’clock the hour hand, the short hand, is point-
ing towards the number one.
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
adjectival compound short-handed—(of an organization, etc.)
– 295 –
short arm

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not having enough people; understaffed: The crews in the
pearling schooners and small traders are very short-handed.
See also: big hand / small hand.