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

Most of the hundreds of drones and missiles were shot down by Israeli defense systems and its allies, including the U.S., in a powerful show of international support. —CBS News, 14 Apr. 2024

In the process, Iranian forces accidentally shot down a commercial jet taking off from Tehran airport, killing over 100 passengers and fuelling public anger against a regime increasingly seen as incompetent. —Tamara Qiblawi, CNN, 14 Apr. 2024

After Iran launched more than three hundred missiles and drones at Israeli territory on Saturday night, the Israel Defense Forces shot down nearly every one. —Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 14 Apr. 2024

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia’s overnight attack used six ballistic missiles, which can hit targets within minutes and are much harder to shoot down. —Reuters, NBC News, 11 Apr. 2024

The dictator's aggressive tone shoots down any prospect of cooling tensions growing between North Korea, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. President Biden made an appeal Wednesday from the White House for Kim Jong Un to accept a Japanese proposal for international talks. —Timothy H.j. Nerozzi Fox News, Fox News, 11 Apr. 2024

The last of those attacks occurred on Feb. 4, although a drone was shot down near the U.S. base at At Tanf Garrison on Monday. —Luis Martinez, ABC News, 2 Apr. 2024

During an appearance on the Back to the Best podcast on Thursday, Patricia Richardson, who played family matriarch Jill Taylor alongside Tim Allen in the long-running sitcom, shot down the idea of rebooting the series. —Julia Moore, Peoplemag, 1 Apr. 2024

Russia has no designs on any NATO country and will not attack Poland, the Baltic states or the Czech Republic but if the West supplies F-16 fighters to Ukraine then they will be shot down by Russian forces, President Vladimir Putin said late Wednesday. —Reuters, NBC News, 28 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1657, in the meaning defined at sense 1