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Glite Dictionary
🏛️ To remove from power 📉 To reduce 😞 To lower spirits ✈️ To lower or land 💻 To crash a system 👏 To get big applause
to bring down

to bring down

7 5.3
Cause a computer system, website, or service to stop working
  • phrasal verb
  • /brɪŋ daʊn/
  • NSFW
translation icon : colapsar
  • Data centers that failed to keep running on backup power brought down news and gossip sites.
  • bring down computer networks
  • bring down computers

Examples

  • On Friday, Wizards again had to bring MTGO down to fix problems with events not completing.

    Blog text (28)

  • Just in case, someone decides to bring this site down because of this information here.

    Blog text (34)

  • It's too dangerous for places like China because it brings down those those systems.

  • And that actually brings the system down instead of putting the patients in the center of the whole system.

  • In some circumstances, the failure of just one element can bring down an entire operation.

    Academic text (1996)

  • These are all critical to business operations and can bring down an organization that isn't paying attention.

    Blog text (30)

  • This is critical, particularly for VAN, as attackers may completely bring down vehicular networks this way.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Truth be told, Anonymous made no secret of its intent to bring down Visa's home page, Winkler says.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Fire, power outage, severe weather—all can bring down even the best of networks in an instant.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The hackers managed to bring down the company’s website for several hours.

Synonyms

to shut down
vsto bring down
541 2.9

Stop a machine, business, or system from working

is caused by overloads or attacks that force systems offline rather than planned turn-offs
to knock down
vsto bring down
57 3.2

Make a building or wall fall down suddenly

is about disabling systems through network attacks rather than physical destruction
to take down
vsto bring down
46 3.0

To remove something that is fixed or standing, for example stage equipment

is a cyber action aiming to make services inaccessible by attacking or overloading
to bring to its knees
vsto bring down
  • Informal
19 6.5

To make a person, company or system stop working

is a deliberate technical attack that disables systems rather than general defeat

Antonyms

to restore
219 3.5

Return something like a painting or building to its original working condition

How Available

to bring down
  • NSFW
7 5.3
to crash
  • Specialized
156 3.2
to shut down
541 2.9
to disrupt
269 4.4
to degrade
49 5.1
to slow
957 1.0

Surface Forms

bring down infinitive
bringing down present participle
brings down third person singular
brought down past
brought down past participle

Morphology

bring + down

The sense 'to elicit enthusiastic applause' cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'bring' (to cause or convey) and 'down' (to lower or defeat); those constituents normally indicate reduction, movement, or defeat rather than approval. This meaning arises idiomatically in the phrase 'bring down the house' and is culturally specific, so a B1 learner who knows the words but has not encountered the idiom would not predict this sense.

Etymology

Bring down in computing uses the image of taking a machine off the network or pulling a plug, so to 'bring down' servers means 'to make a service stop working'.