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

• 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

On September 10, when several Russian drones breached Poland’s airspace, NATO aircraft were scrambled to intercept and shoot down some of the devices. —Robert Birsel, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Oct. 2025

At least one drone also crossed into Romania in September, but was not shot down. —David Brennan, ABC News, 1 Oct. 2025

However, despite his continuing comedic chemistry with his former onscreen brother, Romano shot down any hope of a potential Raymond revival earlier this year. —Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 1 Oct. 2025

Schumer on Monday shot down talk about Senate Democrats proposing a weeklong or 10-day government funding bill to buy more time for the two sides to continue talking. —Alexander Bolton, The Hill, 30 Sep. 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