From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishshoot somebody/something ↔ down phrasal verb1 SHOOTto make an enemy plane crash to the ground, by firing weapons at it His plane was shot down over France in 1944.2 SHOOTto kill or seriously injure someone by shooting them, especially someone who cannot defend themselves The army were accused of shooting down unarmed demonstrators.3 informalWRONG/INCORRECT to say or show that someone’s ideas or opinions are wrong or stupid I tried to help, but all my suggestions were shot down in flames, as usual. → shoot→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
shoot down• All you want to do is shoot everything down.• Based on the information he had, the anti-aircraft commander on the ground ordered the chopper to shoot it down.• By cutting the stems back hard, you will encourage it to produce new shoots from low down.• You sort of want a leader to walk around and pump you up or shoot you down.• This means you can shoot your way down a line of troops, picking off each one in turn.• I learned something from his shooting us down onstage.• Entities zoom around in simulated three-dimensional space, colliding with each other, shooting each other down, swallowing each other amid revolting noises.• Do you wait around with a gun in your hand to shoot me down when I finally stagger out?From Longman Business Dictionaryshoot somebody/something → down phrasal verb [transitive] to reject something such as a suggestion or offer, or stop it from happeningUnion members shot down a four-year contract proposal. → shoot→ See Verb table 