shoot down

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.

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

   Every proposal I made was shot down at once.

• downshoot