tirar

What it means

1. 1.

   To flirt with someone, to make a move — always with an indirect object: 'le estoy tirando'. The stage before anything has been agreed.

2. 2.

   To take a shot at someone verbally, especially in music: a tiradera is a diss track, and rappers 'se tiran' at each other.

Literally: to throw

Examples with translations

• Ese le tá tirando a tu prima.

  That guy's been making moves on your cousin.

• Se tiraron toda la semana en Instagram.

  They spent all week throwing shade at each other on Instagram.

  Note: The diss sense. Common in coverage of dembow and rap feuds.

Where it comes from

Standard tirar, to throw, narrowed by the indirect object: to throw something in someone's direction. Worth flagging for visitors, because in Argentina, Spain and elsewhere the intransitive tirar is a blunt term for having sex — the Dominican construction with le is not that, and the two get confused.

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

tiradera