mow down

phrasal verb

mowed down; mowed down or mown down; mowing down; mows down
informal
: to kill or knock down (a person or many people) in a sudden and violent way
The soldiers were mowed down by machine guns.
The car mowed down four pedestrians.

Examples of mow down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The vehicle moved during the confrontation, police said, but Kahane is not accused of trying to mow down a group of protesters. Jake Offenhartz, Fortune, 9 May 2024 But as its pitcher mowed down Monarchs, the only noise the hitters could make was a Anaya Zambrano groundout RBI that drove in Lea Crawford to break a scoreless draw in the bottom of the fifth. Joseph Dycus, The Mercury News, 30 Apr. 2024 At the show’s most enjoyable, creator Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Gentleman Jack) taps into the wish-fulfillment fantasy of watching a superhero mow down bad guys and have a blast doing it. Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Mar. 2024 On the front line just outside Bakhmut, Ukraine, a 32-year-old commander of a Ukrainian artillery platoon rocked to and fro in the passenger seat of a beat-up Lada, as another soldier navigated the car through a thick forest, sometimes mowing down young trees. Nicole Tung, New York Times, 10 Mar. 2024 More of the iconic desert trees were mowed down by another 2020 fire in Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park. Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2024 While there are cheaper wired bots under $1,000, these require laying perimeter wire around your yard to avoid mowing down your flower beds. Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, The Verge, 19 Mar. 2024 The guns mowing down school kids, shoppers, worshippers and concert crowds belong on the same list as missile-firing tanks, nuclear subs and fighter planes. Dean Minnich, Baltimore Sun, 3 Feb. 2024 Some Black Hawk helicopter with night vision mows down like 40 people. TIME, 23 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mow down.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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Cite this Entry

“Mow down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mow%20down. Accessed 12 May. 2024.

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