shoot down

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shoot down (third-person singular simple present shoots down, present participle shooting down, simple past and past participle shot down)

1. (transitive) To cause to fall by shooting.

   The carnival game involved shooting down tin cans.

   My grandfather shot down several fighter planes in the war.

   • 2022 November 10, Ava Max, Melanie Fontana, Michel Schulz, Ryan Tedder, Madison Love, and Cirkut, “Weapons”, in Diamonds & Dancefloors‎, performed by Ava Max:

     Stop using your words as weapons / They're never gonna shoot me down / Stop, it's time that you learned a lesson / My love is gonna drown you out

2. (transitive, idiomatic) To criticize a (request) to the point of preclusion.

   Every proposal I made was shot down at once.

• cut down

• downshoot