gun down

present singular third person guns down · participle present gunning down · participle past gunned down · past gunned down

1. transitiveTo kill by means of a firearm, especially deliberately and in a brutal manner.

   When Manzanas arrived home from work, the assailant gunned him down from ambush with a volley of pistol shots and escaped across the nearby border to France.

   1968 September 6, “Spain: The Basque Rebellion”, in Time

2. figurativelytransitiveTo shoot down; to put an end to.

   The CEO gunned down that idea before we could present it to the board.

3. USslangtransitiveTo masturbate while making sustained eye contact with someone — typically a female prison officer — as a form of intimidation.

   In the cell diagonally across from mine, a prisoner regularly “gunned down” the nurse on her morning rounds. He deliberately masturbated so that she'd see him through the cell door window as he ejaculated.

   2004, Jens Soering, Yoga of Heart

   Synonyms: gun