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 San José Police Department identified the carjacking suspect at the center of the incident, who shot and wounded an officer during a close-range gunfight before he was mowed down by a police cruiser and fatally shot.
—
Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2026
This can only end predictably with the regime surviving in some form and the protestors mown down in droves.
—Melik Kaylan, Forbes.com, 22 Jan. 2026
But inciting them to rise up and promising intervention, only to watch them get mowed down by the thousands, will be counted as an act of cruelty.
—Karim Sadjadpour, The Atlantic, 16 Jan. 2026
The higher figures come from limited eyewitness testimony, who report Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps security forces mowing down largely unarmed protesters with heavy machine guns and assault rifles.
—Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 13 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for mow down
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Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2026
This can only end predictably with the regime surviving in some form and the protestors mown down in droves.
—Melik Kaylan, Forbes.com, 22 Jan. 2026
But inciting them to rise up and promising intervention, only to watch them get mowed down by the thousands, will be counted as an act of cruelty.
—Karim Sadjadpour, The Atlantic, 16 Jan. 2026
The higher figures come from limited eyewitness testimony, who report Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps security forces mowing down largely unarmed protesters with heavy machine guns and assault rifles.
—Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 13 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for mow down
Cite this Entry
“Mow down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mow%20down. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
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