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

Russia is also believed to have been responsible for launching a drone that was shot down by NATO fighter jets over Lithuanian airspace this week. — David Zimmermann, The Washington Examiner, 19 Sep. 2026

The unit – cobbled together from pilots without units – shot down or destroyed more than 200 Japanese planes from August 1943 to January 1944. — Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2026

The band had always shot down any notions of them doing a full tour with someone else singing Petty’s songs. — Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 17 Sep. 2026

The growing menace of drones crossing into Romania’s skies, many of which officials have blamed on Russia, prompted the NATO member to shoot down four drones this year, the first time since the war next door started. — ABC News, 17 Sep. 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