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
4
: discredit sense 2
shoot down a theory

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 Rodgers has also suggested the U.S. government was shooting down flying objects earlier this year to distract from the release of the Jeffery Epstein documents and that the color schemes of the Super Bowl logos indicates that the NFL is rigged. Chuck Schilken, Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar. 2024 Much of this history was preserved by Pat Ward-Thomas, an RAF pilot captured after being shot down over the Netherlands, who detailed the camp experience in letters home during his confinement. Jack Bantock, CNN, 9 Mar. 2024 Then take a free tour through the ornate Palacio de López, the bubblegum-pink presidential residence that was unfinished when the marshal was shot down in 1870. Laurence Blair, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024 An appeal was also shot down by the state's Fourth District Court of Appeal. 'A second bite at the apple' In January 2022, a group of residents upset at the state of the cemetery held a community meeting and started to vet candidates for a new board. Gerard Albert, NPR, 1 Mar. 2024 The official stressed that the balloon was not shot down by the U.S. military. Faris Tanyos, CBS News, 1 Mar. 2024 But Republican senators, who already disliked AB 257 and AB 1228, used the Panera news as an opportunity to attempt to shoot down and criticize Holden’s most recent bill, even though several voted in favor of the measure during earlier committee hearings. Lindsey Holden, Sacramento Bee, 29 Feb. 2024 In 2019, for example, Iranian air defenses shot down a U.S. Global Hawk drone over the Strait of Hormuz. Paul Scharre, Foreign Affairs, 29 Feb. 2024 American and coalition forces in the region shot down 15 one-way attack drones, Centcom said. Kelsey Ables, Washington Post, 9 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shoot down.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1657, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of shoot down was in 1657

Dictionary Entries Near shoot down

Cite this Entry

“Shoot down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shoot%20down. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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