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Glite Dictionary
🎯 To depend on ⬇️ To decrease 🌧️ To fall 🤒 To get sick 🗯️ To criticize 💻 To stop working
to come down

to come down

361 4.0
To depend on the main point
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʌm daʊn/
translation icon : reducirse a
  • A lot of it comes down to how you handle pressure.
  • ultimately comes down to
  • really comes down to
  • simply comes down to

So could this all really come down to the diet that you eat?

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Examples

  • There are huge caveats to this rosy assessment, and they come down mostly to money.

    Academic text (2012)

  • And it really comes down to two very simple things.

    Rich Roll

  • Well, where do you come down on the whole shape issue?

  • So, you know, I just think it comes down to the idea.

    GaryVee

  • But yeah, from there it really just comes down to what you like.

  • Well, the biggest story comes down to knowledge is power.

  • I think a lot of that comes down to how busy everyone is.

    Academic text (2003)

  • What it comes down to is we're your only salvation.

    GoodFellas (1990)

  • In a meeting, he summarized the project, saying it really comes down to teamwork and communication.

  • After much discussion, the debate came down to whether technology improves education.

Synonyms

to come down to
vsto come down
351 3.8

To depend on one main thing

restricts meaning to reduction to the essential point not dependence
to boil down
vsto come down
  • Informal
78 4.2

Come to the main point or idea

focuses on reduction to the single essential point rather than inherent aspect

Antonyms

to expand
805 2.5

To grow larger in size, amount, or importance

to complicate
101 4.1

To make something harder to understand or do

How Essential

to hinge on
37 4.2
to come down
361 4.0
to boil down
  • Informal
78 4.2

Surface Forms

come down infinitive
come down past participle
coming down present participle
comes down third person singular
came down past

Morphology

come + down

The meaning 'to stop functioning / become unavailable' is a metaphorical extension of the literal 'come' + 'down' (arrive at a lower state) where 'down' signals loss of operation or availability; this connection is related to other phrasal uses like 'go down' for services. However, the specific sense of system failure is not strictly predictable from the literal constituents for a B1 learner without prior exposure, so the relation is partial rather than fully transparent.

Etymology

Come down in phrases like 'it comes down to' feels like many ideas dropping away until only the main point is left on the ground. So come down here means 'to be reduced to the most important point'.