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 Kyiv’s air defenses managed to shoot down all of the Russian drones which began approaching the city at around 3am local time (8pET), Popko said, with none of the drones managing to reach their targets. Niamh Kennedy and Maria Kostenko, CNN, 7 Sep. 2024 In 1960, pilot Gary Powers, while spying at more than 70,000 feet above the former Soviet Union, was shot down by a Soviet surface-to-air missile. Jim Clash, Forbes, 17 Aug. 2024 Yet Iran publicly telegraphed its timing, Washington coordinated with Arab allies to help shoot down dozens of missiles and drones, and Israel responded with a single strike on an air-defense installation in Iran a few days later. Ned Temko, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Aug. 2024 The Russian drones are being shot down by Ukraine's Soviet-era aircraft, according to Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, an aviation expert in Kyiv. Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 1 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for shoot down 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shoot down.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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 12 Sep. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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