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 of shoot down

• ridicule
• mock
• laugh (at)
• rag on

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

Riders shoot down the hills on wooden toboggans, reaching speeds up to 50 mph. —Ginger Crichton, Midwest Living, 9 Jan. 2026

The post in a bitterly cold corner of Alaska is home to approximately 350 soldiers, including those of the 49th Missile Defense Battalion, which operates 40 of the military's 44 specialized missiles designed to shoot down nuclear or other ballistic missiles targeting the United States. —Davis Winkie, USA Today, 8 Jan. 2026

In mid-December, Indiana’s state Senate shot down new maps bolstering the GOP after a heavy pressure campaign to pass the maps by the White House — the latest in a string of hiccups in Republicans’ attempts to redraw maps in their favor. —Alexandra Glorioso, Miami Herald, 7 Jan. 2026

The alliance will shoot down drones, hold exercises close to the Russian border, and take tougher offensive cyber action. —Ian Bremmer, Time, 6 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1657, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for shoot down

• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown
• godown
• hometown