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.
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
“We need the means to shoot down ballistic missiles. We have enough systems; what we need is a steady supply of missiles,” said Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
It cannot shoot down drones or force a grand bargain in Tehran.
From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026
This incident follows a similar one which saw a "rogue" Russian pilot attempt to shoot down an RAF Rivet Joint plane over the Black Sea in September 2022.
From BBC ● May 20, 2026
And then just like she used to, my mom slams down on the accelerator, and we shoot down the road.
From "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" by Ann Braden
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.
