to come down
37
5.9
- phrasal verb
- /kʌm daʊn/
- Informal
:
arremeter contra
- The coach came down on the players for their lack of effort in practice.
Still haven't never talked to those guys and why they came down on me so hard.
- Still haven't never talked to those guys and why they came down on me so hard.
- So it was it was a horrible place to be when the whole community come down on us there.
- And it's interesting because the Obama administration in some ways comes down on both sides of the fence.
- But on recently new evidence came to light and the gavel came down hard on Jeffrey Epstein.
- And quite often the Anglican authorities came down pretty hard on, on the, the Puritans.
- How do we avoid the government coming down with an iron fist and saying, yeah, this is this is illegal now?
- And they had to really come down on us for certain things because they were getting calm down on and we couldn't do the show like we had been doing it.
Examples
-
But we did also come down really hard on the teens with the curfew.
-
Columbus built a new settlement and a string of forts, then came down hard on the Taino.
Blog text (13) -
The Department of Defense came down on us hard.
Fiction book (1999) -
So he came down on the network, the show and me personally.
-
Look, Danny, I'm sorry I came down on you so hard.
-
And the District Supervisor came down on me even harder.
Fiction book (1999) -
The Empire has always come down hard on pirate gangs.
Fiction book (1999) -
The opposition political parties, in particular the BNP, have come down heavily on the government for signing the agreement.
Academic text (1998) -
Both the national religious and the Ultra-Orthodox communities have come down in massive numbers on the hawkish side of the divide.
Academic text (1996) -
I just—it's very hard being a teacher and having parents come down on you all the time.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
144
5.1
To say cruel things to make people think less of someone
44
8.1
To tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
37
8.1
To scold someone very strongly for something they did
33
7.6
To scold someone strongly for doing something wrong
33
6.1
To tell someone they did something wrong, usually by a person in charge
26
7.7
To express strong disapproval of someone, often in an official statement
26
6.9
To tell someone firmly that you do not approve of their actions
18
6.3
To scold someone strongly for a mistake
12
8.2
To criticize someone very strongly and angrily
11
8.1
To angrily tell someone off
8
6.5
To tell someone you are disappointed in what they did
5
8.3
Tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
4
7.9
Scold someone very strongly for a mistake
4
8.2
To suddenly speak angrily and criticize someone for a small mistake
3
8.8
To scold someone strongly for something they did wrong
3
7.9
To tell someone strongly that they have done something wrong, often in front of others
3
7.6
Make someone feel less proud by criticizing or embarrassing them
3
6.3
To angrily tell someone they did something wrong
3
8.6
To say bad things about someone to make them look worse
2
9.9
To scold someone angrily
1
8.7
Tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
1
8.6
To scold someone very strongly for a mistake
1
6.8
Tell someone angrily that they did something wrong
1
7.1
To speak badly about someone or something in public
To tell someone off angrily
To tell someone they are wrong in a mild, formal way
Antonyms
How Harsh
- Informal
4
7.4
22
6.8
- Informal
37
5.9
- Formal
33
6.1
701
3.3
951
1.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
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
To come down on someone is like a heavy hand or storm falling on them from above, showing strong pressure or anger. So come down on someone means 'to criticize or reprimand harshly'.