exchange of fire

plural exchanges of fire

1. countableuncountableThe act of shooting at each other by antagonists armed with guns.

   It was the RCN's first exchange of fire with the enemy during the Second World War.

   2002, William Alexander Binny Douglas, Roger Flynn Sarty, No Higher Purpose, page 98

   2 more examples

   The duellists met at ten paces, and at the first exchange of fire Mr C. was slightly wounded.

   2010, Stephen Banks, A Polite Exchange of Bullets, page 253

   A man's response to the threat of gunplay bore far more meaning than the exchange of fire itself.

   2010, Roger W. Shuy, The Language of Defamation Cases, page 19