⬇️ To decrease ❌ To lose 💻 To stop working 📚 To be remembered 🚢 To sink 🌅 To set (sun) 🍽️ To be swallowed

to go down

76 1.0

To move below the horizon, like the sun at sunset

phrasal verb
/ɡoʊ daʊn/

: ponerse

As the evening approached, we sat on the beach and watched the sun go down over the horizon.
the sun goes down

And when the sun goes down, so do you 'cause it's dark.

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Examples

When the sun goes down, it's time to hit the streets.
I watched them from the bleachers of the varsity diamond as the sun went down behind me.

Fiction book (1995)
And when the sun goes down, so do you 'cause it's dark.

Film Courage
And then you watch the sun go down and come back up again.
The sun is going down and the day is coming to an end.
The sun has gone down and the lights of the city have come on.

Fiction book (1992)
As August opens, Jupiter appears low in the west soon after the sun goes down.

Academic text (2004)
When the sun goes down, I'm having supper, you know.
We sat back and watched the sun go down and the fog start to form.

Fiction book (1995)
When the sun's going down at night, it just kind of glows.

Synonyms

to set

vsto go down

178 3.3

To move below the horizon and stop shining

is a simple disappearance below the horizon without naming cause or daylight end

to dipped below the horizon

vsto go down

1 6.3

To disappear from view as it goes below the line where the sky meets land or sea

focuses on the general event rather than emphasising brief motion below horizon

Antonyms

to appear

873 1.0

To come into view or become visible

to rise

718 1.0

To move upward into the air, like smoke or mist

How Low

to disappear

∞ 1.0

to go down

76 1.0

to sink

358 1.0

Surface Forms

go down infinitive

going down present participle

goes down third person singular

went down past

gone down past participle

Morphology

go + down

The sense of food or drink being swallowed is directly derived from the motion verb 'go' combined with the directional particle 'down' — literally moving downward into the throat — so the meaning is compositional. This spatial verb+particle pattern is common in English and other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would very likely infer this usage.

Etymology

Go down for the sun comes from the clear picture of the sun moving down under the horizon until it disappears. So it means 'to disappear below the horizon'.