[f. TARGET sb.1]
† 1. trans. To protect with or as with a target; to shield. Obs.
1611. G. H., Anti-Coton, 18. [He] targets himselfe with the authoritie of Siluester.
1686. F. Spence, trans. Varillas’ Ho. Medicis, 337. The garrison of Florence … was not sufficient to ward and target it from insult.
2. To use (a person) as a target. Also fig.
1837. Fraser’s Mag., XVI. 244. If you doubt my word, load and target me again.
1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scotl., iii. (1855), 49. To be targetted through … the … newspapers and executed afterwards in effigy.
3. U. S. To signal the position of (a railway switch, etc.) by means of a target (TARGET sb.1 4 d).
1893. Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 17 Nov. The crews of both trains claim to have had the crossing targeted.
