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

Polish jets shot down at least three of the aircraft. —George Petras, USA Today, 11 Sep. 2025

Now Russian drones have been shot down in a NATO country for the first time since the war began. —Patrick Reevell, ABC News, 11 Sep. 2025

Russia also appears to have upped the ante dramatically by sending at least 19 drones into Poland last night, some of which were shot down by NATO forces. —Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica, 10 Sep. 2025

Yesterday, Russian drones were shot down after entering Polish air space in what could be a possible escalation of Russia's war with Ukraine. —Jj Kinahan, Forbes.com, 10 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