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 of shoot down

• ridicule
• mock
• laugh (at)
• rag on

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

As the rookie in the studio, Kay wasn’t completely comfortable shooting down ideas, yet. —Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 28 Apr. 2026

Lyles, who only votes in cases of a tie, shot down the motion. —Charlotte Observer, 28 Apr. 2026

But that measure was shot down by House Republicans, who instead called on the Senate GOP to fund DHS in its entirety. —Fernando Cervantes Jr, USA Today, 27 Apr. 2026

Days after the meeting in Washington, American shot down the idea of a merger. —Matt Ott, Fortune, 27 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1657, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for shoot down

• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown
• godown
• hometown