mow down

phrasal verb

mowed down; mowed down or mown down; mowing down; mows down

informal

: to kill or knock down (a person or many people) in a sudden and violent way

The soldiers were mowed down by machine guns.

The car mowed down four pedestrians.

Examples of mow down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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.

Jabbar used a truck to mow down people on Bourbon Street in the early hours of Jan. 1. —

Richard Esposito, CBS News, 7 Jan. 2025 Rodriguez was mowed down around 12:44 a.m. while directing traffic after a performance by Bronx bachata band Aventura. —

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News, 3 Jan. 2025 The suspect mowed down dozens of people over a three-block stretch on the world-famous thoroughfare while firing into the crowd, police said. —

Leah Sarnoff, ABC News, 2 Jan. 2025 That’s what authorities say occurred just after 3 a.m. Wednesday, when a Texas man inspired by the Islamic State group drove a pickup truck onto a sidewalk filled with people on Bourbon Street, mowing down pedestrians before opening fire on police, wounding two officers and dying in the shootout. —

Laura Strickler, NBC News, 2 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for mow down