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

Payton shot down the notion, though, that Denver signed Mustipher to gain any intel on the Chargers. —Luca Evans, Denver Post, 1 Jan. 2026

His statement appeared to contradict earlier Defense Ministry tallies, which said 89 drones were shot down over eight regions, including 18 over Novgorod, later adding another 23. —Emma Bussey, FOXNews.com, 31 Dec. 2025

Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down 86 Ukrainian drones overnight into Wednesday morning, of which 56 were reportedly downed over the Black Sea. —David Brennan, ABC News, 31 Dec. 2025

Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Tuesday that no proof would be released because all the drones were shot down. —Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 31 Dec. 2025

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