Dictionary

take down en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Meanings

1. To remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed.
   • He took down the picture and replaced it with the framed photograph.
2. To remove something from a hanging position.
   • We need to take down the curtains to be cleaned.
3. To remove something from a website.
   • We must take this fake news item down today.
4. To write down as a note, especially to record something spoken.
   • If you have a pen, you can take down my phone number.
   • But if you ask me to bus my children / I hope the cops take down your name 1966, Phil Ochs, “Love Me, I'm a Liberal”, in Phils Ochs in Concert:
5. To remove a temporary structure such as scaffolding.
   • When everything else is packed, we can take down the tent.
6. To lower an item of clothing without removing it.
   • The doctor asked me to take down my trousers.
7. To arrest someone or to place them in detention.
   • You have been found guilty. Take the prisoner down.
   • We've got enough evidence now to take McFee down.
8. To swallow.
   • Marcus Seltz, who can take down a bucket of crab legs like a freaking combine. 2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 121:
   • I took down the medicine and soon felt better.
9. To defeat; to destroy or kill (a person).
   • They'd had occasion to see Peyton Armistead in all his righteous fury and she knew they wouldn't hesitate to take him down if she gave the word. 2014, Mallery Malone, Take Down, →ISBN:
   • It took me eight years to get enough on the asshole to try and take him down. 2012, Kira Sinclair, Take It Down, →ISBN, page 191:
   • So Marinus, me and a few other unthanked individuals - Atemporals for the most part, with some mortal collaborators — make it our business to ...take them down. 2014, David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks, →ISBN, page 431:
10. (qualifier:combat sports) To force one’s opponent off their feet in order to transition from striking to grappling in jujitsu, mixed martial arts, etc.
11. (colloquial, intransitive) To collapse or become incapacitated from illness or fatigue.
    • "[…]I mind the year after we came, my father took down with the ague, and things looked dark enough for a while; but, when old Billy Slater, on the Clear Fork killed a fat cow, he loaded a lot of the choicest on to a horse and brought it to us;[…]" 1880, Albert Adams Graham, History of Richland County, Ohio, page 254:
    • My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees, / And they rode the truck till they took down and died. 1948, “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)”, Woody Guthrie (lyrics):
12. (transitive) To reduce.
    • to take the volume down a bit

Forms

Translations (49)

es desmontar (remove a temporary structure such as scaffolding) · hu lejegyez (write a note, usually recording something that is said) · fr dépendre (to remove something from a hanging position) · pl rzucić na matę (combat sports) · de umhauen (combat sports) · ru уронить (combat sports) · fr décrocher (to remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed) · de abnehmen (to remove something from a hanging position) · de abmachen (to remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed) · fr baisser (lower an item of clothing without removing it) · hu lebont (remove a temporary structure such as scaffolding) · ga leag (combat sports) · pl zdjąć (combat sports) · hi उतारना (to remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed) · ru приспустить (lower an item of clothing without removing it) · ru убрать (remove a temporary structure such as scaffolding) · de demontieren (remove a temporary structure such as scaffolding) · de abnehmen (to remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed) · de niederwerfen (combat sports) · sv fällning (combat sports) · de aufschreiben (write a note, usually recording something that is said) · hu leír (write a note, usually recording something that is said) · hu lejjebb enged (lower an item of clothing without removing it) · ru снимать (to remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed) · es descolgar (to remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed) · de niederschreiben (literarily) (write a note, usually recording something that is said) · de herunterlassen (lower an item of clothing without removing it) · de rückbauen (remove a temporary structure such as scaffolding) · de entfernen (remove a temporary structure such as scaffolding) · de herunterstreifen (lower an item of clothing without removing it) · de abhängen (to remove something from a hanging position) · de herunternehmen (to remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed) · hu levesz (to remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed) · es apuntar (write a note, usually recording something that is said) · fr démonter (remove a temporary structure such as scaffolding) · es bajarse (lower an item of clothing without removing it) · es anotar (write a note, usually recording something that is said) · pt derrubar (combat sports) · es derribar (combat sports) · de abbauen (remove a temporary structure such as scaffolding) · de runternehmen (to remove something from a website) · ru записывать (write a note, usually recording something that is said) · ru снимать (to remove something from a hanging position) · hu levesz (to remove something from a hanging position) · de notieren (write a note, usually recording something that is said) · pl zdejmować (combat sports) · pl rzucać na matę (combat sports) · eu eraitsi (to remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed) · fr noter (write a note, usually recording something that is said)