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

Nobody wants to get shot down when suggesting a new idea or get in trouble for straying from the norm. —Brian Beutler, Forbes, 24 Oct. 2024

Comments Tom Hardy is shooting down Venom fan theories like turds in the wind. —Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 24 Oct. 2024

In Ukraine, the country’s air force said air defenses had shot down 24 of 28 drones launched overnight against Ukraine. —Samya Kullab and Elise Morton, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2024

Once or twice, Todd’s own name had been dropped as a potential Satoshi, but the idea had been peremptorily shot down. —Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1657, in the meaning defined at sense 1