strike down

Meanings

verbstrike down (third-person singular simple present strikes down, present participle striking down, simple past struck down, past participle struck down or (rare or archaic) stricken down)

present singular third person strikes down · participle present striking down · past struck down · participle past struck down · archaic participle past rare stricken down

To kill (someone or something); to cause to die suddenly.
God will strike you down!
3 more examples
May the Lord strike down those sinners!
Darth Vader: Your powers are weak old man. Obi-Wan Kenobi: You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
1977, George Lucas, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
1994, Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction
To knock down.
He was perched up top attending to the roof lantern when he was stuck down (literally) by a storm of "preposterous fury" (Bizarre Berkshire, D. Mackay 2011).
2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Reading (1840)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 56
1 more example
Throughout the country there were: rupture of telecommunications, resulting amongst other things from telegraph wires and posts overweighted by snow or struck down by gales; [...].
1962 March, “The New Year Freeze-up on British Railways”, in Modern Railways, page 158
To prostrate by illness.
lawTo invalidate (a law, statute etc.)
Later, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down bans on interracial marriages remaining in 16 states, all in the old Confederacy and border states.
2004 October 29, Peter Wong, “Interracial-marriage ban used in Measure 36 comparisons”, in Statesman Journal, volume 152, number 214, Salem, OR, page 2A
Antonyms: uphold