1
as in to ridicule
to make (someone or something) the object of unkind laughter
nowadays the aging activist is routinely shot down in most quarters of the media and dismissed as an irrelevant crank
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2
as in to dismiss
to reject by or as if by a vote
every one of my fund-raising ideas was shot down by the other club members
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3
as in to refute
to prove to be false
the results of several studies shoot down the hypothesis that coffee causes heart attacks
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Examples of shoot down in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The competing companies tried for a similar $18.5 billion deal in 2002 but were shot down by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for monopoly and antitrust concerns.
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Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY, 30 Sep. 2024
Eight-year-old Illia Zaremba, whose father died after his helicopter was shot down in Ukraine, gets ready for his turn on a via ferrata.
—Kyra Kennedy, Outside Online, 29 Sep. 2024
The band have been teasing international dates in the U.S. and recently shot down the rumours of a return to Knebworth House in 2026.
—Thomas Smith, Billboard, 13 Sep. 2024
Hou Yi, a highly skilled archer, was called up by the Imperial Court to shoot down nine of the ten scorchingly hot suns circling Earth.
—Michelle Tchea, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for shoot down 
Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY, 30 Sep. 2024
Eight-year-old Illia Zaremba, whose father died after his helicopter was shot down in Ukraine, gets ready for his turn on a via ferrata.
—Kyra Kennedy, Outside Online, 29 Sep. 2024
The band have been teasing international dates in the U.S. and recently shot down the rumours of a return to Knebworth House in 2026.
—Thomas Smith, Billboard, 13 Sep. 2024
Hou Yi, a highly skilled archer, was called up by the Imperial Court to shoot down nine of the ten scorchingly hot suns circling Earth.
—Michelle Tchea, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for shoot down
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shoot down.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Shoot down.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shoot%20down. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
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