shoot down

British  

verb

1. to shoot callously

2. to cause to fall to earth by hitting with a missile

3. to defeat or disprove

   he shot down her argument

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shoot down Idioms  

1. Ruin the aspirations of, disappoint, as in Bill was hoping Sharon would go out with him, but she shot him down .

2. 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.

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Example Sentences

“They were not designed to shoot down $5,000 drones in quantities of thousands or tens of thousands,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal

It recently has been using upgraded versions of its David’s Sling system, which was designed to shoot down rockets and shorter-range ballistic missiles, to intercept bigger and longer-range varieties—with mixed results.

From The Wall Street Journal

These Aegis Ashore systems fire the same interceptor missiles currently being used by the US Navy to shoot down Iranian ballistic missiles.

From BBC

The missiles can be used to shoot down drones.

From The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. and its allies are currently dealing with the problem of using missiles costing some $4 million each to shoot down drones costing closer to $40,000 apiece.

From Barron's

Related Words

• cheapen
• corrupt
• debase
• degenerate
• demean
• deteriorate
• diminish
• discredit
• disgrace
• downgrade
• impair
• lessen
• reduce
• vitiate
• weaken