touchdown

Noun

touchdown (countable and uncountable, plural touchdowns)

1. (Canadian) A 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.
   • “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. A defensive action of grounding the ball in the team's own in-goal to stop the play.
3. A 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. The moment when an aircraft or spacecraft makes first or final contact with the ground during a landing.
   • The passengers audibly relaxed at touchdown.
   • 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. The 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