mow down

present singular third person mows down · participle present mowing down · past mowed down · participle past mown down

1. transitiveTo cut down, especially in large numbers.

   Our forecast calls for a return of summery weather in the 80s this weekend, so we actually can get out and mow down those weeds without having to inhale clouds of dust.

   2006 Sept. 15, "Roses ’n’ Razzies," gazettetimes.com (Oregon, USA) (retrieved 1 Apr 2011)

2. broadlyfigurativelytransitiveTo kill or slaughter, or to injure by knocking down, especially in large numbers and in a ruthless manner.

   [T]heir machine-gunners mowed down wave after wave of counterattacking Chinese.

   1952 October 27, “War in Korea: Bloodshed in the Hills”, in Time

   2 more examples

   ‘If I’d’ve had a bloody Tommy-gun I’d’ve mowed the lot of the bastards down!’

   1960, J. E. Macdonnell, Don't Gimme the Ships, Melbourne: Horwitz Publications, page 118

   The simplest rejoinder to all of Daenerys’ justifications is that this bloodshed could have been avoided. She was given a moment to choose, and she chose blind vengeance, the kind that eliminates any benevolence she hoped to bring to the seven kingdoms by burning it right out of the minds of anyone who saw her astride Drogon, mowing down men, women, and children with abandon.

   2019 May 12, Alex McLevy, “Westeros faces a disastrous final battle on the penultimate Game of Thrones (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 15 May 2019