shoot down
Britishverb
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to shoot callously
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to cause to fall to earth by hitting with a missile
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to defeat or disprove
he shot down her argument
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Ruin the aspirations of, disappoint, as in Bill was hoping Sharon would go out with him, but she shot him down .
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Reject, defeat; also, expose as false. For example, It was the best idea I could come up with, but they unanimously shot it down , or It was inevitable that they would shoot down any claim made by the opposing candidate . This colloquial expression, which alludes to bringing down an aircraft or game bird by shooting, is sometimes intensified as shoot down in flames , originally (in World War I) referring to bringing down enemy aircraft but the late 1950s extended to decisively defeating anyone or anything.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The first urgent step is increasing active defenses, which include air-defense systems that can identify, shoot down or otherwise disrupt incoming missiles and drones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Because they are cheap and often difficult to shoot down, the aircraft have challenged American and allied air defenses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
At NATO’s annual summit in Ankara, Turkey, on Wednesday, Trump said he would let Ukraine manufacture Patriot defense systems, sophisticated U.S. mobile batteries that can shoot down enemy ballistic missiles.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2026
One of the largest costs for the U.S. during its conflict with Iran has been the missiles used to shoot down inexpensive drones.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026
Behind their machine guns in Masha’s Pe-2, her navigator, Galya, and their tail gunner, Ivan, had both run out of ammunition—but not before Ivan had managed to shoot down one of the Luftwaffe planes himself.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
