shoot down

verb

shot down; shooting down; shoots down

transitive verb

1

: to cause to fall by shooting

shot down the helicopter

especially : to kill in this way

was shot down in cold blood

2

: to put an end to : defeat, reject

shoot down legislation

3

: deflate, ridicule

4

: discredit sense 2

shoot down a theory

Synonyms

• deride
• gibe
• jibe
• jeer
• laugh (at)
• mock
• ridicule
• scout
• skewer

Examples of shoot down in a Sentence

nowadays the aging activist is routinely shot down in most quarters of the media and dismissed as an irrelevant crank

every one of my fund-raising ideas was shot down by the other club members

Recent Examples on the Web

Tesla investors are lobbying to shoot down the largest moonshot compensation plan in history. —Amanda Gerut, Fortune, 21 May 2024

Some species hang around through the night, while others shoot down the canyon and across the eastern flats onto New Mexico fields to gorge on farm pests. —Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 20 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1657, in the meaning defined at sense 1