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Glite Dictionary
to send down

to send down

1 8.6
Make a student leave college or university for a short time as punishment
  • phrasal verb
  • /sɛnd daʊn/
  • Jargon
: expulsar
  • She was sent down for a semester due to repeated misconduct in class.
  • get sent down

Examples

  • Despite all of that, he was again sent down to AAA, again.

    Blog text (10)

  • After 43 appearances, Tedenby was sent down to the minors to get his game right.

    Blog text (25)

  • Forward David Vallorani and defenseman Dustin Stevenson, also sent down from Hershey, made strong first impressions.

    Blog text (8)

  • The university decided to send down several students for poor academic performance.

  • After failing his final exams, Jake was sent down from the prestigious program.

Synonyms

to kick out
vsto send down
524 3.0

Force someone to leave a place or group

is mainly British academic usage for temporary student removal, not general ejection
to throw out
vsto send down
376 3.0

To force someone to leave a place, job, or group

is used specifically for student temporary suspension in university contexts
to suspend
vsto send down
  • Formal
246 4.2

To stop someone from going to work or school for a time

is mainly used in British academic contexts to remove students temporarily
to expel
vsto send down
188 5.0

Force someone to leave a place, such as a school or country, often by official order

can also mean temporary academic removal rather than permanent expulsion
to send away
vsto send down
129 3.0

Make someone leave a job or group because of a problem

is focused on students and temporary academic cases rather than jobs
to send someone packing
vsto send down
  • Informal
24 7.9

Make someone leave quickly and forcefully

refers instead to an official temporary academic removal in British universities
to kick-out
vsto send down
1 4.0

To force someone to leave a place, group or job

is chiefly a British academic action for temporary exclusion rather than general firing
to rusticate
vsto send down
  • Archaic
1 9.9

To suspend a student from a college or university as punishment

is the common British term for temporary academic suspension
to send packing
vsto send down
  • Informal
6.5

To make someone leave quickly to show they are not wanted

is a formal university measure for temporary student exclusion, not a personal insult

Antonyms

to reinstate
87 5.8

To return a person or thing to a previous position like a job

to admit
70 2.8

Allow someone to join a group or organization

How Severe

to expel
188 5.0
to send down
  • Jargon
1 8.6
to reprimand
  • Formal
33 6.1
to warn
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

send down infinitive
sent down past
sent down past participle
sending down present participle
sends down third person singular

Morphology

send + down

There is a loose compositional link: 'send' (cause to go) + 'down' (to a lower place/state) evokes moving someone away or to a lower status, but the specific institutional sense 'suspend/expel a student' is a conventional, regionally marked meaning not directly deducible from the parts. Because the relation is metaphorical and partially transparent yet requires prior exposure (and is mainly British), it should be rated as partially predictable to learners.

Etymology

Send down likely comes from the image of college leaders sending students down off the campus and back to their homes. One popular story says students were literally removed from their rooms, so send down came to mean 'suspend or expel' a student.