1
as in ridicules
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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in kills
to reject by or as if by a vote
every one of my fund-raising ideas was shot down by the other club members
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in refutes
to prove to be false
the results of several studies shoot down the hypothesis that coffee causes heart attacks
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of shoots down
And in the comments of her introductory video, her team shoots down every plausible guess.
—
Lisa Respers France, CNN Money, 16 Oct. 2025
The powerful big tech lobby shoots down any law remotely alludes to testing and regulating AI machines.
—The Ai Insider, Interesting Engineering, 26 Aug. 2025
Lisa Respers France, CNN Money, 16 Oct. 2025
The powerful big tech lobby shoots down any law remotely alludes to testing and regulating AI machines.
—The Ai Insider, Interesting Engineering, 26 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shoots down
Verb
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Then there’s the loud kind, where the audience openly ridicules you.—
Adrienne LaFrance,
The Atlantic,
15 Sep. 2025
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Wednesday ridicules Pugsley for making a zombie.—
Jessica M. Goldstein,
Vulture,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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During a final confrontation, all of this comes to light, Josephine accidentally shoots and kills Irvine family friend Colin (Jay Ellis), and Peter not-so-accidentally shoots and kills Josephine.—
Lauren Huff,
Entertainment Weekly,
7 Nov. 2025
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Lately though, claims about the practice have grown, with viral videos and content creators claiming that exposing your blankets to freezing temperatures kills bacteria, banishes allergens, and more.—
Abby Wolner,
Better Homes & Gardens,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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And refutes this idea that dinosaurs were in decline before the asteroid struck.—
Ari Daniel,
NPR,
30 Oct. 2025
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Like Dunbar’s speakers, Hughes’s dispossessed have no way out, and the poem implicitly refutes optimism regarding the Great Migration and racial progress.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
20 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Cuomo mocks Mamdani’s thin resume, just as Republicans derided Obama’s qualifications.—
Ben Adler,
USA Today,
2 Nov. 2025
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In Ringu, Sadako psychically kills a journalist who mocks her mother’s psychic abilities.—
Will Borger,
Rolling Stone,
31 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The anti-American side focuses exclusively on the tragedies, usually makes slavery the chief argument for the prosecution, and dismisses the triumphs as hypocritical rhetoric.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Oct. 2025
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Some critics have interpreted the ending as a glib last-minute twist that threatens to neutralize the story’s potency and dismisses the seriousness of the movie’s premise.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
22 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The place is decaying and strict, but Luna refuses to give in to its rules.—
John Hopewell,
Variety,
7 Nov. 2025
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But Chiles refuses to let anyone’s score define her.—
Essence,
Essence,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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If Duggan vetoes the ordinance, the council would have a week from the receipt of the veto to override it with a two-thirds majority vote — meaning at least six of the nine council members.—
Dana Afana,
Freep.com,
22 Oct. 2025
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Yet an administrator vetoes the plan, and the meeting’s start is uncaffeinated.—
Joshua Rothman,
New Yorker,
9 Sep. 2025
Verb
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In between questions about Nineties cultural touchstones like Friends, Space Jam, Beavis and Butthead, the Spice Girls, and Sir-Mix-A-Lot — during which Kravitz racks up a lot of points and Butler downs a lot of shots — the pair also discusses working on Caught Stealing.—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
20 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shoots down.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shoots%20down. Accessed 10 Nov. 2025.
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