Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
⬇️ To decrease ❌ To lose 💻 To stop working 📚 To be remembered 🚢 To sink 🌅 To set (sun) 🍽️ To be swallowed
to go down

to go down

93 4.0
To be remembered for something important by many people
  • phrasal verb
  • /ɡoʊ daʊn/
translation icon : pasar a la historia
  • Donald J. Trump's ascent to the presidency will go down as one of the greatest political upsets in history.
  • go down in history

Examples

  • "But in the long book of history, you're going to go down as an outstanding public servant."

    Blog text (2)

  • I know that probably this will go down as a new chapter in this war.

  • Ready to go down in history?

    Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

  • At worst, he would not go down in history at all.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Do you think he can possibly go down in history in a good way?

    Blog text (6)

  • '63 will go down in history as the best summer for me.

    Dirty Dancing (1987)

  • You'll go down in history as the man who killed Superman!

    Superman III (1983)

  • This name MO Brooks will now go down in infamy.

  • President Barack Obama, yes, will go down in history as our nation's first African-American president.

    Blog text (12)

  • This event will surely go down as one of the most significant moments in our community's history.

Synonyms

to record
vsto go down
762 2.3

To make a written, audio, or video copy of something for later use

is about being remembered or entered into history rather than producing accounts
to chronicle
vsto go down
70 5.7

To write events in the order they happened

is about being kept in history or memory rather than the act of writing
to make history
vsto go down
61 4.1

To do something important that people will remember for a long time

is about being entered into records or remembered without causing the event
to take down
vsto go down
30 3.4

To write something so you can remember it

is about being remembered in history or for a reason rather than quick notes
to set down
vsto go down
13 3.8

To write words or information so they are recorded

is about being remembered in history rather than being put into official writing

How Memorable

to go down
93 4.0
to record
762 2.3
to note
951 1.6

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 in history comes from the idea of an event being written 'down' for people to read later, as if the story goes and is put down on the page. So it means 'to be remembered'.