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Glite Dictionary
letting down

letting down

4 3.0
To move something like curtains or equipment down to a lower place
  • noun
translation icon : decepción
  • The number one motivator is fear, maybe fear of letting down your teammates, being embarrassed, or fear of losing the job.
  • letting down the team
  • letting down the family
  • letting down his guard

Examples

  • I think we're letting down NHS staff and they have been let down.

  • Now if I do not get 3 or 4 papers done, I shall be letting down colleagues.

    Academic text (1992)

  • I am deeply sorry to those I am letting down.

    Blog text (20)

  • But the idea of letting down his friends and of opting out of the unit just was unthinkable to him.

  • The other issue is not just feeling like you're letting down one person, but again, it's that bigger idea of how will other people view you.

  • His failure to meet the deadline felt like a real letting down of his team.

  • The coach warned that any mistakes during training would result in a letting down of the entire squad's efforts.

  • After missing the school play, she felt a profound sense of letting down her friends who had worked so hard.

Synonyms

drop
vsletting down
45 1.0

A sudden fall from a higher place to a lower place

describes making something go lower deliberately rather than an accidental fall
lowering
vsletting down
2.5

To move something to a lower position

emphasizes the actor causing the change rather than the motion itself

Surface Forms

letting down singular
letting downs plural

Morphology

letting + down

The parts 'let' (allow/cause) + 'down' (to a lower position) produce a clear literal sense of lowering, but in common usage 'let down' frequently means 'to disappoint' — a metaphorical extension not strictly derivable from the constituents. A B1 learner who knows the words might guess the literal sense but would not reliably infer the idiomatic meaning without prior exposure, so the expression is partially but not fully transparent.

Etymology

Letting down comes from the simple act of let + down, making something go lower, like lowering a curtain or easing equipment on ropes. So, a 'letting down' means the action of moving something or someone to a lower position.