touchdown

plural touchdowns · alternative touch down · alternative touch-down

1. CanadiancountableuncountableAmerican footballA six-point score occurring when the ball enters possession of a team's player in the opponent's end zone.

   Today I scored my first touchdown.

   1 more example

   “I must have caught 45 or 50 touchdowns in that right corner,” he told The Baltimore Sun in 2009. “It was sloped some, a little downhill, which helped me speedwise. I wasn’t all that fast.”

   2020 October 29, Richard Goldstein, “Jimmy Orr, a Favorite Target of the Colts’ Unitas, Dies at 85”, in The New York Times

2. countableuncountableball gamesA defensive action of grounding the ball in the team's own in-goal to stop the play.
3. countableuncountableball gamesA try (scoring play of grounding the ball in the opposing team's in-goal).

   A first Test try by Fergus McFadden and a Tomas O'Leary touchdown helped Ireland to a 15-12 half-time lead.

   2011 February 13, Lyle Jackson, “Ireland 22-25 France”, in BBC

4. countableuncountableaeronauticsThe moment when an aircraft or spacecraft makes first or final contact with the ground during a landing.

   The passengers audibly relaxed at touchdown.

   1 more example

   And I think it's gonna be a long, long time / 'Til touchdown brings me 'round again to find / I'm not the man they think I am at home / Oh, no, no, no[…]

   1972 April 17, Elton John, Bernie Taupin, “Rocket Man”, in Honky Château, performed by Elton John

   Synonyms: setdown

5. countableuncountableThe moment of contact of a tornado with the ground.

   The American Red Cross sent me to Alabama within twenty-four hours of the tornado's touchdown, and I visited the communities of Oak Grove and Rock Creek four subsequent times.

   2003, Jessica McNew, Eyes in a Storm