From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishstrike somebody ↔ down phrasal verb1 KILLto kill someone or make them extremely ill Over 50 nurses at the clinic have been struck down with a mystery virus. They would rob the bodies of those struck down in battle.Grammar Strike down is usually passive in this meaning.2 HIT formal to hit someone so hard that they fall down3 law to say that a law, decision etc is illegal and officially end it → strike→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
strike down• Deserted - except for the sprawled corpses of the two murdered men, lying where death had struck them down.• Full of risk and unexpected peril just waiting to strike you down.• His description of the beauty he saw was lyrical lightning, and it probably struck him down.• I struck his arm down and stood ready to hit him again, harder.• And if so, whose hand had struck him down, and what had become of the weapon?• Achilles had spared Priam, but Achilles' son struck him down before the eyes of his wife and daughters.• But the sun seldom came sideways, preferring instead to strike straight down from above. 