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
4
: discredit sense 2
shoot down a theory

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
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.
The remains of a World War II airman were identified 80 years after his plane was shot down during a bombing mission in Germany, military officials said this week. Kerry Breen, CBS News, 29 Nov. 2024 Kyiv Russian Ballistic Missile Attack Forces Ukrainian Parliament Shutdown There were also drone strikes in Kursk according to the region's governor, Alexei Smirnov, who wrote on Telegram that seven Ukrainian missiles and seven drones were reportedly shot down. Tom Rogers, Newsweek, 25 Nov. 2024 In a statement Thursday on the Telegram messaging app, Ukraine’s air force said an intercontinental ballistic missile was fired at Dnipro, along with eight other missiles, and that the Ukrainian military shot down six of them. Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov, Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov. 2024 Ukrainian officials did not elaborate on whether the ICBM struck its target in Ukraine or if it was shot down. Brad Dress, The Hill, 21 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for shoot down 

Word History

First Known Use

1657, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of shoot down was in 1657

Dictionary Entries Near shoot down

Cite this Entry

“Shoot down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shoot%20down. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.

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!