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.
It was initially using pricey systems such as Iron Dome and F-16 jet fighters to shoot down the cheaply made drones.
These air defence destroyers can also shoot down drones and ballistic missiles.
From BBC
This better price is crucial for having enough rounds to sustain a long fight, and improving the “cost curve” problem of expending pricey Western missiles to shoot down cheap drones and projectiles.
These missiles travel at Mach 5 or faster and are much more difficult to track and shoot down than conventional versions.
Army’s intelligence unit, pointed out that it might cost the enemy millions of dollars to shoot down a balloon that costs a few hundred bucks.
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.
