shoots down

verb

present tense third-person singular of shoot down
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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of shoots down In the movie, Russia shoots down a defunct satellite and creates a cloud of debris, leading to serious tension in orbit. — Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 23 Sep. 2026 Speculation soon followed that this effort was in response to the aforementioned test audience confusion, but Cronin shoots down that notion about the last-minute social media campaign. — Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 20 Apr. 2026 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shoots down
  1. ridicules
  2. kills
  3. refutes
  4. mocks
  5. dismisses
  6. refuses
  7. vetoes
  8. downs
Verb
  • Fiction and reality braid in clever ways as Highsmith ridicules her visitor and is inspired by him, imagining a sinister plot (which could in fact be real).
    — Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 19 Sep. 2026
  • Though Claudius ridicules Hamlet for his emotional vulnerability, his grief drives him to avenge his father and emerge as a hero.
    — Jeanette Tran, The Conversation, 12 Mar. 2026
Definition of ridicules
Verb
  • But hypertension kills silently, one person at a time, and is the precursor to many heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure.
    — Garth Walker, Chicago Tribune, 28 Sep. 2026
  • Hydrogen peroxide acts as a mild disinfectant that kills mold and bacteria and is very helpful for light staining.
    — Asia London Palomba, The Spruce, 27 Sep. 2026
Definition of kills
Verb
  • The Mad King, however, refutes the legitimacy of any kind of prophecy, even going so far to reject the notion of destiny.
    — Rafael Motamayor, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Speaking with the Courant, Moscowitz refutes that there was ever a formal meeting involving him or his investigators and Isa Abdus-Sabur.
    — Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of refutes
Verb
  • Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is designed as an action flick as well as a portrait of a family dealing with tragedy and an insider’s look at an insular community that mocks harmful stereotypes without perpetrating them.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 28 Sep. 2026
  • And finally, another one of Wang’s creations mocks Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine’s infamously cringe sexts by showing the pop star losing his mind to a picture of Jolly’s derriere in an Instagram DM.
    — Frank Landymore, Futurism, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of mocks
Verb
  • If your team is afraid to name real weaknesses, or if leadership dismisses uncomfortable truths, the analysis won’t do what it’s meant to do.
    — Nancy Padberg, Forbes.com, 25 Sep. 2026
  • Risks, but not existential ones Not everyone dismisses the risk quite so bluntly, though.
    — Clare Duffy, CNN Money, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of dismisses
Verb
  • Even so, the 55-year-old refuses to talk about who could run Octopus after him, even with his board.
    — Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Aron refuses to forgive Adam for his lies about his mother, signs up for the Great War, and goes to his death.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 2 Oct. 2026
Definition of refuses
Verb
  • If Newsom vetoes the bill, the legislature could decide to hold another vote to override the veto.
    — Sofia Williams, Sacbee.com, 2 Sep. 2026
  • At midnight the housing bill, hailed as the most substantial legislation on housing in decades, will become law, unless Trump reverses course and signs it sooner or vetoes it.
    — Jack Harvel July 10, Kansas City Star, 10 July 2026
Definition of vetoes
Verb
  • Both teams had ups and downs (mostly downs for the Browns) but Ohio State was always a much better, and much more fun atmosphere.
    — Zach Dean OutKick, FOXNews.com, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Nearly everyone rides a stationary bike — high tension, low speed — after a match and quickly downs a protein recovery drink.
    — Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2026
Definition of downs

Browse Nearby Words

shoots at
shoots down
shoots the breeze
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Shoots down.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shoots%20down. Accessed 5 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All