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 Russians can’t shoot down Ukrainian drones and missiles with the same kind of effectiveness of a year ago. — Jordan Blum, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2026

Ukrainian air defenses shot down or suppressed 128 drones, according to the air force. — Kyla Guilfoil, NBC news, 5 Sep. 2026

In a statement, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that its forces had shot down 53 Ukrainian drones overnight. — ABC News, 5 Sep. 2026

After the people in that silo went outside and celebrated their victorious escape, they were all shot down by drones. — Kelly Allen, PEOPLE, 4 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