mow down

Pronunciation

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Verb

mow down (third-person singular simple present mows down, present participle mowing down, simple past mowed down, past participle mown down)

1. (transitive) To cut down, especially in large numbers.
   • 2006 Sept. 15, "Roses ’n’ Razzies," gazettetimes.com (Oregon, USA) (retrieved 1 Apr 2011):

     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.

2. (transitive, figuratively, by extension) To kill or slaughter, or to injure by knocking down, especially in large numbers and in a ruthless manner.
   • 1952 October 27, “War in Korea: Bloodshed in the Hills”, in Time:

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

   • 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:

     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.