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

The Colorado Supreme Court shot down five ballot measures in all -- three by Democrats and two by Republicans. — Shaun Boyd, CBS News, 30 June 2026

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said Russian air defenses shot down more than 60 drones after multiple waves of drones were launched towards the Russian capital starting Monday night. — Kosta Gak, CNN Money, 30 June 2026

Sergey Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said early on Tuesday that at least 61 Ukrainian drones had been shot down in the capital region overnight. — Kevin Shalvey, ABC News, 30 June 2026

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by Russian separatists with a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine, killing 298 passengers and crew members. — USA Today, 29 June 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