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’s Defense Ministry said 99 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight across Russia and occupied Crimea. —ABC News, 11 Apr. 2026

On Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian military personnel have shot down Iranian Shahed drones in multiple Middle Eastern countries. —Jason Ma, Fortune, 10 Apr. 2026

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime channel between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and maintained its ability to shoot down warplanes and attack its neighbors, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. —Donald Heflin, The Conversation, 10 Apr. 2026

The first signs an American aircraft was shot down came over the Telegram messaging app. —Geoff Brumfiel, NPR, 10 Apr. 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