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

• deride
• gibe
• jibe
• jeer
• laugh (at)
• mock
• ridicule
• scout
• skewer

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

Our fact-check sources Chaos Factory (YouTube), Sept. 1, 2023, BREAKING: UFO's seen over South Florida today being followed by military attack helicopters Business Insider, Feb. 12, 2023, The US has shot down 3 suspicious flying objects in 3 days. —Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY, 13 Jan. 2025

Shortly after McCormick shot down Tesla’s bid to restore Musk’s package, the electric vehicle company confirmed its plans to appeal. —William Gavin, Quartz, 8 Jan. 2025

What To Know Russian news agency TASS on Sunday reported that Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have shot down a MiG-29. —Dan Perry, Newsweek, 5 Jan. 2025

That shared sense of humor is eventually utilized to shoot down the dating rumors. —Whitney Perry, Glamour, 2 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1657, in the meaning defined at sense 1