What does down mean

Crossword clues for down

down

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

down

I.adverb

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a bird swoops down (=it suddenly flies down)

▪ The bird swoops down on its prey.

a car breaks down (=stops working because something is wrong with it)

▪ On the way home on the motorway the car broke down.

a car slows down

▪ The car slowed down and stopped outside our house.

a computer is down (=is not working)

a ditch runs along/down etc sth

▪ A muddy ditch ran along the side of the field.

a down payment (=a small payment for something you are buying, when you will pay the rest later)

▪ We were able to put a down payment on an apartment.

a fire dies down (=it burns less strongly)

▪ The fire slowly died down.

a flame dies down (=burns less strongly)

▪ By evening, the flames had gradually died down.

a level falls/goes down/decreases

▪ Pollution levels have fallen slightly.

a marriage breaks down/up (=ends because of disagreements)

▪ Liz’s marriage broke up after only eight months.

a mist comes down/in (=comes to a place)

▪ The mist came down like a curtain.

a number falls/drops/goes down/decreases/declines

▪ The number of new houses being built is falling steadily.

a plane touches down (=lands safely on the ground)

▪ As soon as the plane touched down on the runway, I felt better.

a price goes down/falls/decreases

▪ In real terms, the price of clothes has fallen over the last ten years.

a system breaks down/fails

▪ An alarm sounds a warning before the system breaks down.

a system fails/breaks down

▪ If your immune system breaks down, you will be vulnerable to infections.

an agreement breaks down (=it stops working)

beat sb hands down (=beat someone very easily)

▪ He should be able to beat them all hands down.

Blow me down

▪ Blow me down if she didn’t just run off!

bobbed...up and down

▪ The boat bobbed gently up and down on the water.

bouncing up and down

▪ Stop bouncing up and down on the sofa.

bow down in worship

▪ Come, let us bow down in worship.

break down and weep (=start crying)

▪ As she watched his plane taxi away, she broke down and wept.

break down in tears (=suddenly start crying)

▪ I broke down in tears when I read the letter.

break/tear down barriers

▪ Most companies have broken down the old barriers of status among the workers.

bring a plane down (=land it)

▪ He ran out of fuel and had to bring the plane down on a road leading to the village.

bring down a government (=force it to lose power)

▪ It was a major scandal that nearly brought down the government.

came crashing down

▪ A large branch came crashing down.

came down on...like a ton of bricks (=very severely)

▪ I made the mistake of answering back, and she came down on me like a ton of bricks.

cast down

▪ She could not bear to see him so miserable and cast down.

casting her eyes down

▪ She blushed, casting her eyes down.

climb (up/down) a ladder

▪ He climbed the ladder up to the diving platform.

close/shut (down) a factory

▪ The factory was closed down in 2006.

come down hard on

▪ We need to come down hard on young offenders.

come down with a cold (also go down with a cold British English)informal (= catch one)

▪ A lot of people go down with colds at this time of year.

come up/down a ladder

▪ Dickson came up the ladder from the engine room.

consumption falls/decreases/goes down

▪ Coal consumption has fallen dramatically.

cracking down hard

▪ The police are cracking down hard on violent crime.

cut down a forest

▪ The forest was cut down to make way for housing.

dismiss/throw out/turn down an appeal (=not give permission for a decision to be changed)

▪ The taxpayer's appeal was dismissed and the penalty upheld.

Down below,

▪ Down below, people were talking and laughing.

down payment

▪ We’ve almost got enough money to make a down payment on a house.

down to...last penny

▪ She’s down to her last penny.

down your drink (=drink it very quickly)

▪ He downed his drink and stood up.

Down's syndrome

Downing Street

▪ Downing Street declined to comment on the allegations.

drag...down to...level

▪ Don’t let them drag you down to their level.

draw up/lay down a code (=create one)

▪ The syndicate decided to draw up a code of conduct for its members.

drive on/along/down the motorway

▪ He was driving along the motorway at a steady sixty miles an hour.

enrol on a course/put your name down for a courseBritish English (= to arrange to officially join a course)

▪ How about enrolling on a sailing course?

fall/go down in value

▪ There is a risk that the shares may fall in value.

falling down on the job

▪ The local authority is falling down on the job of keeping the streets clean.

fall/sit down etc with a bump

▪ Rose fell, landing with a bump.

farther away/apart/down/along etc

▪ The boats were drifting farther and farther apart.

▪ a resort town farther up the coast

flushed...down the toilet

▪ She flushed the rest of her drink down the toilet.

force prices/interest rates etc down/up

▪ The effect will be to increase unemployment and force down wages.

from the waist up/down (=in the top or bottom half of your body)

▪ Lota was paralysed from the waist down.

further down the road (=in the future)

▪ It might be a sign, much further down the road, of a change in policy.

further/lower down a scale

▪ Bonuses are not paid to people lower down the salary scale.

get down to the nitty-gritty

▪ Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty and work out the costs.

get/keep your weight down (=become thinner or stay thin)

▪ How can I keep my weight down?

give your life/lay down your life (=die in order to save other people, or because of a strong belief)

▪ These men gave their lives during the war to keep us free.

go down a hill

▪ It's best to use a low gear when you are going down steep hills.

go down by 10%/250/$900 etc

▪ Spending has gone down by 2%.

go down in history (=be remembered for many years)

▪ She will go down in history as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

go down in history (=be remembered for many years)

▪ The carnival will go down in history as one of the best ever.

go up/come down in sb’s estimation (=be respected or admired more or less by someone)

go up/down a ladder

▪ Be careful going down the ladder!

got bogged down

▪ The car got bogged down in the mud.

got the thumbs down

▪ Her performance got the thumbs down from the critics.

go/walk down a mountain

▪ She lost her way as she went down the mountain.

hand sth down from generation to generation

▪ Native Australians hand down stories and songs from generation to generation.

hands down (=very easily or by a large amount)

▪ Everyone expected Sam to win hands down.

hard/difficult to pin down

▪ The flavour was hard to pin down.

have a lie down

▪ I’m going upstairs to have a lie down.

have/get sth down to a fine art (=do something very well)

▪ I’ve got the early morning routine down to a fine art.

hold down a job (=keep a job)

▪ He had never been able to hold down a job.

impose/hand down a sentence (=officially give someone a sentence)

▪ The judge imposed a three-year sentence.

It all comes down to

▪ It all comes down to money in the end.

It’s pelting down

▪ It’s pelting down out there.

jot down/scribble notes (=write them down quickly)

▪ The jurors were scribbling notes as the witness gave evidence.

jumped down

▪ The cats jumped down and came to meet us.

jumping up and down (=jumping repeatedly)

▪ Fans were jumping up and down and cheering.

keep inflation down (=keep it at a low level)

▪ These policies will help to keep inflation down.

keep it down

▪ Can you keep it down – I’m trying to work.

keep your voice down (=not speak loudly)

▪ Keep your voice down, they’ll hear you!

Keep your voice down

▪ Keep your voice down – she’ll hear you!

laid down by statute (=established by law)

▪ Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute .

laugh till you cry/laugh till the tears run down your face

▪ He leaned back in his chair and laughed till the tears ran down his face.

lay down a principle (=describe a principle and make it accepted)

▪ The report lays down general principles for the teaching of English.

lay down...arms

▪ The terrorists were urged to lay down their arms.

lay down/establish ground rules for sth

▪ Our book lays down the ground rules for building a patio successfully.

lay down/set/impose conditions (=say what sb must agree to)

▪ They laid down certain conditions before agreeing to the ceasefire.

laying down tracks

▪ They are just about to start laying down tracks for their second album.

let down badly

▪ She had been let down badly in the past.

let the side downBritish English (= disappoint a group of people that you belong to)

lie down

▪ I’m going upstairs to have a lie down.

look sb up and down (=look at someone in order to judge their appearance or character)

▪ Maisie looked her rival up and down with a critical eye.

low down

▪ There was a hole low down in the hedge.

low down

▪ She pulled her hat low down over her eyes.

lower down the line

▪ There should be more direct discussion between managers and workers lower down the line.

make a down payment on

▪ We’ve almost got enough money to make a down payment on a house.

mosey on down

▪ I guess I’ll mosey on down to the store now.

move up/down a scale

▪ Some farmers prospered and moved up the social scale.

negotiations break down (=stop because of disagreement)

▪ The negotiations broke down over a dispute about working conditions.

open/pull down/draw the blinds

pacing...up and down

▪ I found Mark at the hospital, pacing restlessly up and down.

paralysed from the neck/chest/waist down

play down the importance/seriousness/significance of sth

▪ The White House spokeswoman sought to play down the significance of the event.

profits are up/down

▪ Pre-tax profits were up 21.5%.

pull down/knock down/tear down a building

▪ All the medieval buildings were torn down.

pull down/knock down/tear down a building

▪ All the medieval buildings were torn down.

pull down/knock down/tear down a building

▪ All the medieval buildings were torn down.

put down the telephone

▪ Before he could respond, she’d put down the telephone.

put down/replace the receiver

put poison down (=put it somewhere to kill an animal)

▪ One way of getting rid of rats or mice is to put poison down.

put the phone down

▪ I only remembered his name after I had put the phone down.

put your success down to sth (=say that your success was the result of it)

▪ They put their success down to their excellent teamwork.

reduce inflation/get inflation down

▪ The government has promised to reduce inflation to 3%.

▪ The government's top priority is to get inflation down to 2%.

reduce/cut/bring down unemployment

▪ The government is spending more on projects to cut unemployment.

reduce/lower/bring down the cost

▪ If you go later in the year, it will bring down the cost of your holiday.

refuse/reject/turn down an application (=say no to an application)

▪ Their planning application was rejected because of a lack of parking facilities.

refuse/turn down an invitation (also decline an invitationformal)

▪ She turned down an invitation to take part in a televised debate.

reject/turn down sb's resignation

▪ Initially, his resignation was rejected.

▪ He offered his resignation but it was turned down by the Prime Minister.

roll up/down a window (=open or shut the window in a car)

▪ Lucy rolled the window down and waved to him.

sales fall/drop/go down (=become lower)

▪ European sales have fallen by 12%.

sb’s income falls/goes down

▪ Average income fell by one third during this period.

sent a chill down...spine (=made her very frightened)

▪ There was something in his tone that sent a chill down Melissa’s spine.

set to/get to/get down to work (=start work)

▪ They set to work cutting down trees and brushwood.

set/lay down a standard

▪ The government sets standards that all hospitals must reach.

shares fall/go down (=their value decreases)

▪ Shares fell sharply on the London Stock Market yesterday.

shoot down a plane

▪ The guerrillas shot down an Israeli fighter plane.

shot down in flames

▪ I tried to help, but all my suggestions were shot down in flames, as usual.

shut down a computer (=close the programs and stop it working)

sit (down) at the piano

▪ She sat down at the piano and began to play.

slam the phone down (=put it down hard, because you are angry)

▪ I was so mad I just slammed the phone down.

split sth in two/down the middle

▪ The war has split the nation in two.

stand down from a committee (=leave it)

▪ Everyone was sorry when he stood down from the committee.

stripped down to (=removed all her clothes except her bra and pants)

▪ Terry stripped down to her bra and pants and tried on the dress.

suit sb down to the groundinformal (= suit someone very well)

▪ Country life suits you down to the ground.

sun blazed down

▪ The sun blazed down as we walked along the valley.

suppress/crush/put down a rebellion (=end it by force)

▪ Troops moved in to suppress the rebellion.

suppress/crush/put down a revolt (=end it by force)

▪ The Russians speedily crushed the revolt.

talks break down/collapse (=stop because of disagreement)

▪ Talks broke down today between the Russian and Japanese delegations.

tears run/roll/stream down sb’s face

▪ Oliver laughed until tears ran down his face.

the cost falls/goes down

▪ Airline costs have fallen considerably.

the economy slows down

▪ The US economy is slowing down after a long period of growth.

the excitement dies down (=people stop feeling excited)

▪ The excitement after last month's elections is beginning to die down.

the fog comes down (also the fog descendsliterary) (= it appears)

▪ Day after day the fog came down.

the laughter dies (down) (=stops)

▪ The laughter died instantly as Robert walked in.

the quality goes up/down

▪ I think the quality has gone down over the years.

the rain comes down (=it falls)

▪ If the rain starts coming down, we can always go inside.

▪ The monsoon rain comes down in sheets.

the rain pelts down (=it comes down fast)

▪ The rain was now pelting down.

the rain pours down (=a lot of rain comes down)

▪ The rain was pouring down and I was quickly soaked.

the rate goes down (also the rate falls/decreasesmore formal)

▪ We are expecting unemployment rates to fall.

the sun beats down/blazes down (=shines with a lot of light and heat)

▪ The sun beats down on us as we work.

the sun beats down/blazes down (=shines with a lot of light and heat)

▪ The sun beats down on us as we work.

the sun sets/goes down (=disappears at the end of the day)

▪ It is a good place to sit and watch the sun go down.

the wind drops/dies down (=becomes less strong)

▪ The wind had dropped a little.

things...calm down

▪ It took months for things to calm down after we had the baby.

throw away/pass up/turn down a chance (=not accept or use an opportunity)

▪ Imagine throwing up a chance to go to America!

turn down/refuse/reject/decline an offer (=say no to it)

▪ She declined the offer of a lift.

turn the heating down/up

▪ Can you turn the heating down a bit?

turn the radio down/up (=make it quieter or louder)

▪ Can you turn your radio down a bit?

turn the television up/down (=make it louder or quieter)

▪ Rory had turned the television up so loud that the people next door complained.

turn the volume up/down

▪ Can you turn the volume up?

turned him down (=refused his offer of marriage)

▪ Josie’s already turned him down.

upside down

▪ To get the plant out of the pot, turn it upside down and give it a gentle knock.

upside down

▪ an upside down U shape

went down a treat (=members liked it very much)

▪ The speech went down a treat with members .

went down like a lead balloon (=was not popular or successful)

▪ The idea went down like a lead balloon.

went down...pit (=worked in a coal mine)

▪ Dad first went down the pit when he was 15 years old.

zoom off/around/down etc

▪ Brenda jumped in the car and zoomed off.

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ VERB

bend

▪ Now I can walk up hill without puffing and can bend down without grunting.

▪ After Primo bends down and scratches her head, she walks over to the mailman and sniffs his foot.

▪ Then he glides across to the other side of the room and bends down.

▪ He bends down, picks up a small rock and throws it at the Hotelito.

▪ In most cases it will be easier to groom the dog on a table, as this saves having to bend down.

▪ If he or she asks you to pick something up, assert yourself or defuse the situation but don't bend down.

▪ He was seen to bend down at two drains near his home.

climb

▪ Mr Honecker is up a pole and all the ladders offered him to climb down would be an admission of failure.

▪ I went across to Nina and asked her to climb down.

▪ Murphy climbed down and opened the door for her.

▪ I then start to climb down.

▪ They have false floors, so beware, it is very dangerous to climb down into them!

▪ She climbed down the dune and walked towards him.

▪ The coachman climbed down slowly and held up both hands.

come

▪ The study doors are those that face one as one comes down the great staircase.

▪ When he died, the widow came down here once to sign the papers when the place was sold.

▪ But this is what it comes down to.

▪ Maybe, but the once pricey products that use this satellite technology have come down to earth.

▪ Gentle probing brought deflection, anything stronger and the barriers came down.

▪ Already dusk was coming down hard.

▪ Nine priests came down from Oxford and tried to lay the troubled soul to rest in a nearby pool.

▪ I shoot baskets and I see a car coming down.

drop

▪ He is a natural opener, and Paul Terry has dropped down the order to accommodate him.

▪ Horses and mules dropped down dead, exhausted with the effort to move their loads through the hideous medium.

▪ Trent dropped down into the galley and took his time searching out a tin of ginger biscuits.

▪ Key dropped down for a sidearm fastball with two strikes, but he left it up around the chin.

▪ Just the thing to stop you from dropping down dead after strutting your stuff to the latest chart topper!

▪ Song or no song, he had dropped down on the bed beside her and put his hand over hers.

▪ Then, on the second day, we dropped down into the lowest part of the crater to reach the hot springs.

▪ Then he dropped down, and was evidently reloading his piece.

fall

▪ These had perhaps once been outhouses which had long ago fallen down.

▪ If he remembered correctly one simply blanked out and fell down.

▪ On the way into the office she fell down a flight of stairs and was injured.

▪ They are way too big for meso big that every time I try to walk in them, I fall down.

▪ His thick brown hair fell down the sides of his face.

▪ Jim Kohler, 74, who runs the league, said Impastato fell down more than once while running the bases.

▪ She had been descending the stairs when she'd slipped and had fallen down numerous steps.

▪ The attorney general is supposed to act only when the law enforcement is falling down or broken down in a local community.

glance

▪ He glanced down at the amount.

▪ He glanced down at his tally.

▪ As he moved past the man's shoulder on his way back, Harry could not help glancing down at the book.

▪ I looked up at him as suddenly as if he had spoken to me, and he glanced down and nodded.

▪ Ianthe was surprised not to fed the usual pang of nostalgia as she glanced down towards Westminster Cathedral.

▪ I glanced down to see that a well-aimed egg had turned my blouse into an ugly mess.

▪ Jean-Paul glanced down at his own suit, which was too tight for him, and damned uncomfortable.

▪ The sun was going down and it was in a warm twilight that they reached the summit of their climb.

▪ Meanwhile, economists argue about whether the true cost of healthcare has even gone down under managed care.

▪ I became paralysed, unable to go down or up.

▪ My shield went down to block it.

▪ I fish such a bait on a 14 hook, or go down to a 16 if the bream are being finicky.

▪ We saw all that go down.

▪ The others went down, and he removed the back ups before following on himself.

▪ Several of them said they expect that insurance premiums will go down as the number of policyholders goes up.

hand

▪ Your dislike for Maman was handed down to me, wasn't it?

▪ In 1969, the U. S. Supreme Court handed down a historic decision that challenged the reasonableness test.

▪ Serious offences such as murder are tried by juries in crown courts, which have powers to hand down heavier sentences.

▪ The beauty of Cecilia Druitt was handed down to all the daughters of the family generation to generation.

▪ Meanwhile work on full employment policy had been handed down by the politicians to a committee of officials.

▪ The verdict was handed down on a Saturday.

▪ The following judgments were handed down.

▪ These skills are handed down from mother to daughter through the generations.

hold

▪ They may be held down with scotch tape.

▪ But this was not a night when Weinke was going to be held down for long by the Gators.

▪ His existence had been particularly dull, holding down brief part-time work selling clothes in Manchester's underground fashion world.

▪ Even the increase proposed will put pressure on Congress to hold down other spending or dip into funds earmarked for Social Security.

▪ Celia came down holding the baby, who had gone blue and stopped breathing.

▪ Robert Crehan claims he was held down as the body building star repeatedly kicked him.

▪ Frye was expounding on the dangers of holding down a job while taking a full load of courses.

knock

▪ He died in Florence 26 December 1924, after being knocked down by a motor vehicle in London.

▪ Lane was running when he was knocked down, and continued to churn forward.

▪ In the end McGuigan battled through 15 rounds, and was knocked down twice, before losing on points.

▪ Out of principle, Free Trade, Reaganomics, etc., the whole industry was knocked down with a loud whoosh.

▪ The ones she had just knocked down were on their feet again, hopping on the steps around her.

▪ If the round could knock down the target, it could knock down a man.

▪ Fifteen seconds earlier he had been knocked down and lay on the canvas as the referee counted just short of a knockout.

▪ Dunaway has been knocked down, at times, in her career.

lay

▪ A shift in the weather pattern, bringing low pressure systems across the Alps in December laid down a firm base.

▪ Cook for them thirty years and lay down and die.

▪ Then she lay down to rest in the lounge, surrounded by other women who even here never stopped talking.

▪ Then he closed the window, lay down in the center of the floor, and went to sleep.

▪ To reduce costs some firms lay down eligibility criteria for relocation assistance.

▪ Jinju quickly moved away from the window and lay down on the kang, pulling the covers up over her head.

▪ She laid down her Cosmopolitan magazine, open at fashions, loose flowing shirts in jewel colours.

▪ Once priorities had been decided, the usual and almost invariable conditions were laid down.

lead

▪ The doorway leading down is narrow and jammed with kids.

▪ The road now led down a gully so steep that Jim Yellow Earring was thrown forward.

▪ Descent: Traverse leftwards until easy ground leads down to the road.

▪ Then they walked to the head of the narrow stairway that led down to the street.

▪ It took Miguel a while before he found the stairs leading down to the basement.

▪ He knew the feel of every cold stone step on the wide staircase leading down to the main hall.

lie

▪ It was cold and the man's dogs lay down to rest and stay warm.

▪ Lee Ann took all her clothes off and lay down to sun herself on the flying bridge.

▪ I lay down on the ground and looked through the windows, right into the King's rooms.

▪ Some one like you is likely to lie down in the street and starve to death.

▪ She lay down and a sweet slumber came.

▪ I went back up to my room and lay down on the bed.

▪ Tiberi did not take Alliot-Marie's move lying down.

▪ Like the stomach surgeon, a psychiatrist can make all sorts of basic assumptions when a patient lies down on the couch.

look

▪ He smiled as he looked down at her and answered her quick, light speech with conscientious gentleness.

▪ After all, he is a member of an elite media establishment that both fears and looks down on the talk phenomenon.

▪ Philip knew he was looking at him but Philip kept looking down.

▪ But this was not a night for Lewis to look down upon the vanquished.

▪ Amin, at his full height, looked down at me closely.

▪ I looked down at my keyboard and noticed the spacebar of this high-tech machine was stuck.

▪ Still looking down, it seemed as if the pattern of squares was moving.

move

▪ She had moved down to London and lived in squats.

▪ Now they had turned into Chinatown, and were moving down its narrow, teeming gullies, under strings of paper flowers.

▪ I was met by a slow but very solid resistance moving down the far bank.

▪ Sometimes, these cold snaps and sudden snows move down towards the tropical South.

▪ He moved down the trench and found a ladder.

▪ Slowly she moves down his body.

▪ I guess this locks the transfer needle, stopping it moving down and damaging itself.

▪ When she could no longer manage the stairs, she moved down to a ground-floor apartment.

pin

▪ Although we will clarify it in the course of this study, multimedia is hard to pin down to a rigid definition.

▪ But resistance which is both group-based and informal can be very difficult for management to pin down.

▪ We were pinned down and taking a real hammering.

▪ It is telling that economists have so far found the precise productivity benefits of information technology difficult to pin down and measure.

▪ Moreover, any attempt to pin down precisely the behavior of 200 these tiny things turns out strangely counterproductive.

▪ But his policy positions, as far as they can be pinned down, seem designed to offend almost everybody.

▪ An explanation from Lipsey for his withdrawal Friday has been hard to pin down.

pull

▪ The original bricks and mortar might be pulled down but Leatherslade Farm will remain for ever at the centre of the legend.

▪ Soon the regulars had him caught inside two croaker sacks pulled down over his torso.

▪ Would you mind pulling down the blinds?

▪ The pulling down of the right sheath, the ripping sound always convinced her it hurt.

▪ If the inquiry rules that the paths must remain, then the clubhouse may have to be pulled down.

▪ He slammed the door shut behind him and pulled down a tattered green shade.

▪ Tilting the head back, aiming accurately and pulling down the lower lid were other areas of difficulty.

▪ All the large houses have been pulled down, or taken over as nursing homes.

put

▪ They put down sawdust but had insufficient to deal with the flooding to all areas of the factory.

▪ She put down her basket and advanced towards the bed.

▪ In contrast, trust is like the precious soil in which a relationship can grow and put down secure roots.

▪ They like being flattered, or congratulated, or encouraged: they certainly do not like being put down.

▪ Mrs Field summoned the vet immediately, who said it was in a hopeless condition and should be put down at once.

▪ Because he painted so well, put down what he saw, people would admire him.

reach

▪ I find this a powerful image-the Divine reaching down, humanity reaching upward.

▪ My lover goes to the fridge and reaches down.

▪ Mum got me to reach down a tall vase from the mantelshelf.

▪ She reached down between her legs, where he was, and put him inside her again.

▪ He reached down, found his field bag - and saw the feet behind him.

▪ He reached down and scratched Bone behind the ears.

▪ The General reached down and took the little bouquet.

roll

▪ Tears rolling down her face, she turned on the taps.

▪ It will be the one flying into Jacksonville with the windows rolled down.

▪ Mickey had a ramp with pea sized objects rolling down to be dealt a mighty blow from a spring loaded mallet.

▪ She was wearing a loose print dress and stockings that were rolled down below the knee.

▪ Soon it would roll down his nose, and then what?

▪ He smiled, sensing an odd happiness welling up in her, even though tears began to roll down her cheeks.

▪ It was as tall and cold as a glacier rolling down a valley, crunching trees like matchsticks.

▪ Suds were rolling down her face and were on her shoulders.

run

▪ Then he was running down the office, howling like a bereaved dog.

▪ A trickle of juice ran down her arm.

▪ As the railways run down and maintenance gets neglected, they keep going wrong: the steam-heating in particular.

▪ Trickles of blood like lava seen at night run down my body.

▪ Champagne and blood ran down the wall.

▪ It is a relatively easy run down if we start early in the morning.

▪ With his unkempt ginger hair running down into sideboards it made his hard face look even meaner.

▪ Ruth went out of the house and ran down the steep moorland path all the way to Ilkley.

sit

▪ I handed the flask to Keith and sat down on the bed.

▪ Finally my wife, Fran, and I sat down to figure out where the money was going.

▪ Ben went slowly to the big table and sat down.

▪ Cameron and the school district sit down with a neutral third person to negotiate an agreement that both sides find acceptable.

▪ Then I turned the podium over to Brian and sat down.

▪ At two o'clock I should like to sit down at table.

▪ My sister-in-law made a spread, and the three battered travelers sat down to eat.

sitting

▪ Ten minutes later Doctor Jekyll had returned to his own shape and was sitting down, pretending to eat breakfast.

▪ Then she returned, not sitting down.

▪ This makes it very easy to put on and take off, even when the patient is sitting down.

▪ Even sitting down I found myself grabbing the edge of the table to stop falling off the chair.

▪ It's really good for sitting down with a meal and just forgetting about work.

▪ He was standing up, or sitting down, or lurking in the locker room for both.

▪ She's probably sitting down in one of the cloakrooms.

▪ I remember sitting down at my desk with a sudden sense of dread.

slide

▪ The cab separated from the trailer which turned over on its side, sliding down the slope.

▪ Yet statistics that show voter turnout slowly sliding down, down.

▪ He managed to murmur Mayli's name, then closed his eyes and slid down to the floor.

▪ He slid down on his spine so he could rest his head on the back of the seat.

▪ The voices above stopped arguing, as Cardiff slid down the rail, exhausted and gasping for breath.

▪ She bit her lip as two large tears slid down her cheeks.

▪ Katherine could feel his anguish, and for the second time that day the tears slid down her cheeks.

▪ The compost slides down in the tank and appears when ready in the access area at the base of the tank.

slow

▪ Expect cautious underspending in the first six months while trends are analysed; slowing down the devolution of budgets.

▪ We all slow down a little bit.

▪ When spending power goes up relatively quickly the long-term growth in property crime slows down.

▪ When food goes back into the refrigerator, growth begins to slow down, but only as the food chills.

▪ Staff turnover had traditionally been high but has slowed down more recently.

▪ The third time he took chromium, he felt his thought processes slowing down.

▪ He looked around him as he went; but he did not slow down much until he reached the culvert.

▪ For how else could it be that he never had to slow down or speed up?

track

▪ He knew Ellen was with her and was perfectly capable of tracking down their whereabouts.

▪ Yet he would certainly be tracked down if he tried anything else and that would threaten the larger enterprise.

▪ He tracks down relatives of those who died of Aids early in the epidemic.

▪ Another company had difficulty in tracking down specialised research work, what there is and how to get a copy.

▪ All these problems seem to have made the criminal personality difficult to track down.

▪ It shouldn't be too difficult to track down.

▪ Information is still hard to track down and reaches the classroom level in a fragmented and patchy way.

▪ The cause was eventually tracked down to a previously unknown bacterium, given the name Legionella pneumophila.

walk

▪ C., can you walk down the street and bump into a row of newspaper boxes half a block long?

▪ He walks down the Stroud Green Road, past the halal shops and the yam shops.

▪ I walked down a corridor and went through another door.

▪ Leaving his personal belongings in the room he walks down to enjoy a good breakfast before continuing his journey.

▪ You can walk down the street, raise your family, earn a living.

▪ Graham and Slater walked down the narrow alley formed by the seedy, decaying stonework and the painted wood.

write

▪ Its prime target is an audience of decision makers whose names you can write down on a single sheet of paper.

▪ He commenced to carry round a notebook and write down what we said.

▪ It was later written down in two books called the Mishnah and the Talmud.

▪ Alas, since such passwords are also difficult to remember, they tend to be written down near the computer.

▪ Sit and write down what you like or love in life and then what you want to change.

▪ The night after that assembly I began to write down goals for myself.

▪ It is a method to write down a language which is commonly confused with the language itself.

▪ Now, as I write down this little memoir of my golfing adventure, I remember.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

I couldn't put it down

▪ It's such a good book that I couldn't put it down.

▪ What an amazing book! I just couldn't put it down.

a walk/trip down memory lane

▪ So if anyone wants company for a walk down Memory Lane, I will gladly go with them.

▪ The doctor calls it a panic attack, I call it a trip down memory lane for big bro.

▪ This will be a trip down memory lane for the right hon. Gentleman.

along/down the road

▪ At one spot along the road, a lone flower escaped the flames that poured through the Three Bar Wildlife Area.

▪ How far down the road of cutbacks do bank management want to go?

▪ Lily shot a quick horrified look up and down the road.

▪ No car had come down the road for a while.

▪ There's a nice place down the road.

▪ Well, we want to let you know that a new church is opening just down the road from you.

batten down the hatches

▪ Businesses are focused on survival - everyone's battening down the hatches.

be breathing down sb's neck

▪ I'm already really busy today, and now Paul's breathing down my neck saying he wants the Paris deal completed.

▪ I can't work with you breathing down my neck.

▪ We'd better start sending out those letters soon -- I've had the sales manager breathing down my neck about it all week.

▪ He would be breathing down your neck all the time.

▪ Labour and the Liberal Democrats are breathing down his neck.

▪ Maybe the Assistant Commissioner's wife was breathing down Maxham's neck.

▪ The staff is breathing down your neck.

be counting (down) the minutes/hours/days

be down on your luck

▪ Here, parents who are down on their luck can pick out toys for their children.

▪ In the film, Williams plays a down-on-his luck salesman whose wife has left him.

▪ The program is for motivated people who are temporarily down on their luck.

▪ We bought the necklace from an old man who was down on his luck and in need of a penny or two.

▪ All were down on their luck, all had been drinking and all had decided on an easy way out.

▪ Families that were down on their luck could get a small loan, food, a job referral.

▪ He was down on his luck and not a happy hedgehog.

be falling down

▪ Her nappy was so wet it was falling down her legs.

▪ It is not that they are falling down drunk at. 08.

▪ Something, or some one, was falling down the hillside.

▪ Technically he is excellent but you have noticed that he is falling down on the supervisory aspects of his job.

▪ The attorney general is supposed to act only when the law enforcement is falling down or broken down in a local community.

▪ The house is falling down around our ears.

▪ There was a long pause, then, before it observed that some-thing was falling down toward it from the orbiting ship.

▪ They liked us at first because they thought we would like be falling down glad to have them as neighbors.

be sent down

▪ Afterwards in the pub some one told me he would probably be sent down.

▪ He was sent down from Eton in 1863 for a few months for having made a forbidden visit to a Jesuit house.

▪ He was sent down South to live with his grandparents when he was in second grade.

▪ I was using regular for about two years after that until I was sent down.

▪ Much of the iron was sent down the valleys for export through Cardiff and Newport.

▪ Police divers were sent down to check the vessel's hull for possible sabotage.

▪ There seems every possibility that Trev Proby will be sent down in the near future.

bear down on sb/sth

▪ A stillness which seemed to bear down on her like a physical presence.

▪ Five or six men, horsed, masked and well-armed, burst from a clump of trees and bore down on them.

▪ For those who find Christmas suddenly bearing down on them, the build-up to the day is one blur of activity.

▪ His eyes bore down on me out of a somewhat hawklike face, and I immediately became flustered.

▪ Meanwhile, the New Zealand Interislander Ferry is bearing down on us like a 350-foot long, 40-foot tall aquatic freight train.

▪ The Pequod bears down on the area and comes between the whale and the floundering seamen.

▪ These thoughts bear down on me as I sit here on this third night of writing.

▪ Yussuf bore down on her in a fury.

beat sb down

▪ I beat him down and got the bracelet for $2.

▪ The owners originally wanted $1000 for the horse, but George managed to beat them down to $850.

beat sb ↔ down

beat the door down

bed sb/sth ↔ down

boil down to sth

▪ In the end, the case will boil down to whether the jury believes Smith or not.

▪ But by any measure, the Republican presidential campaign right now boils down to Dole and Forbes.

▪ Honestly, it does all just boil down to the need to learn something.

▪ It boils down to whether you think the extra features and quality are worth the extra money.

▪ Love boils down to pheromones, it says.

▪ Tackling these more stubborn obstacles will boil down to better schools and plain old dollars and cents.

▪ The Grid boils down to only five behaviour patterns - the four extremes and the middle one.

▪ The real problem boils down to identifying the nature of the problem itself.

▪ To Smolan, the decision to leave so late in the game boiled down to quality.

boil sth ↔ down

bow down to sb

▪ And bowed down to resume his strange rump-in-the-air and face-in-the-sea posture.

▪ Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you.

break sth ↔ down

bring down the curtain on sth

▪ Now I think we should bring down the curtain on this little episode, and go to bed.

bring the house down

▪ Sinatra brought the house down when he sang "New York, New York."

▪ She nearly brought the house down when I scrounged another biscuit and put her through her repertoire of tricks.

▪ The Great One almost brought the house down in his return to Southern California.

▪ This comeback brought the house down.

▪ Topping the bill was Dangerous Dan the fire eater, but it was the finish that brought the house down.

brush yourself down

▪ Give me a couple of minutes, will you? Brush yourself down while you're waiting.

cash down

catch sb with their pants/trousers down

chuck it down

▪ Outside it was chucking it down and the streets were deserted.

close sth ↔ down

come back/down to earth (with a bump)

▪ Adai can come back to Earth after Gog is dead - after I am dead, perhaps.

▪ AIr travellers came down to earth with a bump yesterday when they joined in some charity aerobics.

▪ In Karuzi you quickly come down to earth.

▪ Maybe, but the once pricey products that use this satellite technology have come down to earth.

▪ Peter Lilley came down to earth.

▪ They recently have come down to Earth.

come down on sb like a ton of bricks

come down on the side of sb/sth

▪ I came down on the side of tax reform.

▪ I have been criticised for coming down on the side of the second alternative.

▪ Sheer orders of magnitude matter, and the orders of magnitude do not come down on the side of the real-balance effect.

▪ We have to come down on the side of the snowy plover.

come down the pike

▪ Job opportunities like this don't come down the pike that often.

▪ Our image as a bunch of bumpkins who roll over for anything that comes down the pike?

come tumbling down

▪ Soon her marriage came tumbling down.

▪ And the marriage comes tumbling down as Roth, like a Roth hero, demands to become unbound from marital ties.

▪ Another set of walls comes tumbling down.

▪ As the Holy Spirit filled me, the barriers came tumbling down.

▪ He watched a huge white mountain collapse and come tumbling down on him.

▪ One wrong move, we realized with horror, and the doors could come tumbling down.

▪ The statues came tumbling down all over the Soviet Union.

▪ Then the stage came tumbling down.

▪ There is a loud clatter as a stack of circuit boards comes tumbling down.

criticize/nag/hassle sb up one side and down the other

cut sb down to size

▪ The team wants to cut UCLA down to size.

▪ History thus cuts man down to size by reminding him of his origins: its characteristic insight is hindsight.

▪ Josh would soon cut Hank down to size.

▪ To cut you down to size.

▪ When the time came, he would cut him down to size.

cut sb ↔ down

cut sth ↔ down

deep down

▪ Deep down, I think she's really very ambitious.

▪ He pretends he doesn't care, but deep down I know he's very upset.

▪ I always believed deep down that things would get better.

▪ I kept pushing the team, but deep down I think I knew we wouldn't win.

▪ I regret my divorce, because deep down I'm a very old-fashioned woman.

▪ Yeah, sometimes he can be really nice and polite but, I tell you, deep down he's an animal!

divide/split sth down the middle

▪ The vote was split right down the middle.

▪ We split you down the middle.

down in the dumps

▪ If you're feeling down in the dumps, come over and have a chat.

▪ Mom's kind of down in the dumps at the moment -- why don't you buy her something to cheer her up?

▪ But his company is still down in the dumps.

▪ She supposed she was feeling a bit down in the dumps, apprehensive too about celebrating Christmas Day at the Danbys.

▪ We can't have you down in the dumps like this.

▪ You sound pretty down in the dumps.

down in the mouth

▪ Why do you look so down in the mouth today?

▪ He was no longer down in the mouth.

▪ I have, as you know, been slightly down in the mouth.

▪ Peter saw him the other night, Max, said he looked very down in the mouth.

down south

down the drain

▪ Well, there's another fifty dollars down the drain.

▪ And she would die in the bathtub, her blood going down the drain.

▪ Dietitians responded by telling cooks to dump yolks down the drain and use the cholesterol-free whites.

▪ It foreclosed on the mortgages, and the mill went down the drain.

▪ It may help to twist drain rods when pushing them down the drain.

▪ Male speaker I fear that safety standards will go down the drain as people seek to make most profit.

▪ Pour it down the drains if necessary.

▪ There are fears of family life going down the drain, as staff may get only two complete weekends off in seven.

▪ You might as well take money and shovel it down the drain.

down the hatch

▪ After all, up the lads and down the hatch.

▪ Nirvana Inc battened down the hatches and made to ride out the storm.

▪ The chain has battened down the hatches in the face of the storms.

down the line

▪ And Caminiti dunked a two-run double down the line in right.

▪ As the couple passed on down the line, George quickly approached the man.

▪ He loves his back-seat role, moving quietly up and down the lines, constantly persuading and cajoling.

▪ I would, I would probably do the same thing were I you know, another generation down the line.

▪ Otherwise he'd have been down the line after us like a shot.

▪ Sherman wanted nothing less seven years down the line, when he was forty-five.

▪ The thing I try to do in that situation is flick my bat and start jogging down the line.

down your/London etc way

dress sb ↔ down

drop/go down like ninepins

▪ Men and horses went down like ninepins before them, in a tangle of waving limbs, flailing hooves and broken lances.

face down/downwards

▪ A man lay face down, feet toward the center, head away from it.

▪ Gently, he brought his face down on to Joe's and kissed him on his lips.

▪ I set my book face down on the chair and followed after him.

▪ I was lying face down on the ground.

▪ Larry Flynt presents the infamous pornographer as a likable slob who faced down the big guys and won.

▪ On return to Earth the orbiter orients itself so that the underside is facing down and slightly forwards.

▪ Side by side, the two men lay face down in the grass, feet toward the rear of the pale car.

force/ram/shove sth down sb's throat

▪ But my brokers were complaining that I was shoving them down their throats.

▪ His teeth were even and white, and Bernice wanted to ram them down his throat.

▪ Jess felt like ramming it down his throat.

▪ The agents poured pepper sauce down their nostrils, or forced water down their throats.

▪ Torrents of lava would not tumble out to force fire down his throat, torch his tongue.

get down to brass tacks

get sb down

▪ The endless rain was beginning to get him down.

▪ You can tell me if there's anything that's worrying you or getting you down.

get sth down (sb)

get sth down to a fine art

get sth ↔ down

get/put your head down

▪ He simply puts his head down and keeps on scoring goals - lots of them.

▪ He was as cranky as a bad-tempered goat, always putting his head down and charging into things that annoyed him.

▪ I put my head down and kept stroking.

▪ I put my head down into my hands and absented myself mentally.

▪ Instead of putting his head down and charging, Balshaw chipped and chased.

▪ When I saw him in court he was crying, and so was I.. He put his head down.

▪ You chuck down three of them, and then put your head down on your desk.

go down a treat

▪ It seems to be going down a treat.

▪ It went down a treat with the matrons in safe seats like South-west Surrey.

go down a/this road

▪ They mustn't go down this road again, it could only lead to disaster.

go down like a lead balloon

go down the Swanee

go down the pan

▪ The Mimosa is going down the pan faster than Dynorod could.

go down the plughole

go down the shops/club/park etc

▪ We went down the shops on Saturdays.

go down the tubes

▪ The who experiment could go down the tubes.

go down well/badly/a treat etc

▪ It went down a treat with the matrons in safe seats like South-west Surrey.

▪ It seems to be going down a treat.

go up/come down in the world

go/come/be down to the wire

▪ We were in a couple of games that went right down to the wire.

▪ In the event the starting line-up went down to the wire.

▪ It is down to the wire.

go/walk down the aisle

▪ As she walked down the aisle her heart brimmed over with love and adoration for Charles.

▪ He wanted to walk down the aisle with you and give you away to your young man.

▪ Her mouth turned up at the corners, Mavis walked down the aisle with Walter.

▪ Inspector Miskin was walking down the aisle.

▪ Resplendent in red, she walks down the aisle on the arm of the Rev.

▪ The wedding was off, because no way was she going to walk down the aisle looking like an eejit!

▪ They looked at the passports and then started to walk down the aisle, pointing their guns at the passengers.

▪ Together, they walked down the aisle behind the crucifix, toward the rear of the church.

hand down a decision/ruling/sentence etc

▪ Just a few months earlier, the Supreme Court had handed down a decision inviting states to pass abortion restrictions.

▪ She is expected soon to hand down a ruling.

▪ The commission will seek to arbitrate a resolution before handing down a decision in late summer.

hands down

▪ As he would reach up for it, she would stick the spoon in her mouth and then pull her hands down.

▪ Caroline strode to the windows and plumped her hands down on the sill.

▪ I pulled my hands down toward her knees.

▪ If an election had been held then, San Francisco would have won hands down.

▪ If size is a factor in this, Xerox has succeeded hands down.

▪ The answer is light, hands down.

▪ The twin arms of that mechanical gibbet forced his hands down into the liquid, which sizzled and steamed.

▪ You then bring your hands down and show that the birds have flown.

hit sb when they are down

hold down a job

▪ Clarke holds down two jobs to support his family.

▪ Kelly wants to prove to his father that he can hold down a job.

▪ But if you are schizophrenic, you can not think straight, concentrate, hold down a job.

▪ During the day they held down jobs as, respectively, a waitress and delivery driver.

▪ Frye was expounding on the dangers of holding down a job while taking a full load of courses.

▪ People with long-term mental disorder have many problems in holding down a job.

▪ Rella could hold down jobs, when she wanted to.

▪ Who would employ her and how would she hold down a job?

it is pissing down (with rain)

it's tipping (it) down

jump down sb's throat

▪ I was just asking a question. You don't have to jump down my throat!

keep your head down

▪ But real life, of course, teaches lesser men to keep their heads down and their mouths shut.

▪ Carla kept her head down as she approached the front door, glancing up briefly when the two officers introduced them-selves.

▪ Even his most bitter opponents are keeping their heads down.

▪ He kept his head down under fire, avoided trouble, trusted in luck to keep him alive.

▪ I have pain in my left shoulder when I keep my head down or in moving my left arm a lot.

▪ I kept my head down and pretended to be consuming the scraps left on my dish.

▪ I kept my head down and the heavy bag well to the fore as a protective shield.

▪ It was good advice to keep my head down in the early months.

kick sb when they are down

▪ The newspapers cannot resist kicking a man when he is down.

kick/hit a man when he's down

knock sb down to sth

▪ But prolonged recession and high unemployment knocked his popularity down to rock-bottom.

▪ Rose recommended knocking it down to $ 15, 000 and the supes agreed.

knock sb ↔ down

knock sth ↔ down

lay down the law

▪ If Bob starts laying down the law, just tell him to shut up.

▪ Parents need to lay down the law regarding how much TV their children watch.

▪ By eleven o'clock I was standing in front of Patterson's desk laying down the law.

▪ It is unfortunate that Mrs Gardner's thoroughness did not extend to laying down the law about insurance.

▪ MacFarland said I would do well in his class and laid down the law about doing well in the others.

▪ Ron, too, was laying down the law.

▪ She would lay down the laws.

▪ Steadily I disappointed Paquita, who believed it was my job to lay down the law with Clarisa.

▪ They made a move for the piano, but we laid down the law and soon redirected their energy to sightseeing.

▪ Well, there was nothing for it, I had to lay down the law in no uncertain terms.

lay down your life

▪ He considered it a privilege to lay down his life for his country.

▪ He remembered the words of Izz Huett: She would have laid down her life for you.

▪ I would lay down my life for it.

▪ They had true grievances to settle and were ready to lay down their lives for vengeance.

let sb down lightly/gently

let the side down

▪ Brown was constantly letting the side down.

▪ Essentially, it's the ageing drivetrain that lets the side down.

▪ I don't want to let the side down - don't send me to the Sick Room!

▪ It is an unmentionable subject, a terrible way of letting the side down.

let your guard/defences down

▪ Never let your guard down was the only solace he offered.

▪ We must not let our defences down, Mrs Thatcher and other cautious voices would argue.

let your hair down

▪ Chat rooms on the Internet are a place we can let our hair down and say what we think.

▪ I spotted Juanita really letting her hair down on the dance floor.

▪ Playing softball is just a good way to let your hair down and have fun.

▪ You can really let your hair down and do what you want at the club.

▪ Among the many booksellers and publishers whom I spotted letting their hair down on the dance floor was independent publisher Christopher Hurst.

▪ He liked this: what his pub was all about, for people to let their hair down.

▪ In the second half Complicite let their hair down in their own inimitable way.

▪ Man's got ta let his hair down.

▪ Out in the pasture, the princess let her hair down.

▪ This was the day our friends let their hair down and spoke with amazing frankness.

▪ We know when we can afford to let our hair down and when we can't.

let your hair down

▪ Among the many booksellers and publishers whom I spotted letting their hair down on the dance floor was independent publisher Christopher Hurst.

▪ He liked this: what his pub was all about, for people to let their hair down.

▪ In the second half Complicite let their hair down in their own inimitable way.

▪ Man's got ta let his hair down.

▪ Out in the pasture, the princess let her hair down.

▪ This was the day our friends let their hair down and spoke with amazing frankness.

▪ We know when we can afford to let our hair down and when we can't.

look down your nose at sb/sth

▪ I can go in a shirt and jeans and no one looks down his nose at me.

▪ Besides, I didn't fancy going to the Chapel and having all the family looking down their noses at me.

▪ But I was not one to look down my nose at shabbiness.

▪ Don't look down their noses at you.

▪ Never had any man so looked down his nose at her.

▪ No more will I look down my nose at whining, spineless malcontents.

▪ Normally she looked down her nose at men and then ignored them unless they needed the sharp edge of her tongue.

▪ One who doesn't look down her nose at anybody.

▪ We looked down our noses at this pair of student hicks.

look sb up and down

▪ "Don't be silly - you don't need to lose weight," he said, looking her up and down.

▪ The hotel manager slowly looked the old man up and down and then asked him to leave.

▪ Every day after the first two weeks I would look anxiously up and down the road, hoping to see their car.

▪ Raul looked him up and down, eyes opened wide with derision.

▪ Ron Barton looked her up and down.

▪ She looked him up and down.

▪ She stood there, looking Sherman up and down, as if she were angry.

▪ The eaters were lo-cals; they looked us up and down when we went in.

▪ The guy looked him up and down and then something clicked.

nail sb down

plonk yourself (down)

▪ He was built like a brick shithouse and he plonked himself down right in front of the stage.

plop (yourself) down

▪ Stanley plopped down on the sofa beside me.

▪ Carefully, slowly, not at all certain why, they plopped down on to the branch.

▪ On our other side a young couple wandered by and plopped down with only a six-pack and a sleeping bag.

▪ Our friend Joan strolls into the bank and plops down $ 100 to open an account.

▪ She plopped down too much mortar, smoothed it out and set a brick on it.

▪ She plops down on the empty cot and lifts a curtain to peer out the window.

▪ The coyote returned to the barn end and plopped down in front of the crowd of llamas.

plump (yourself) down

▪ Peggy plumped down in the chair beside Otto.

plunk (yourself) down

▪ Americans love to plunk themselves down in front of the TV.

▪ I plunk down a dollar and confront my deepest fears.

▪ Marketers usually plunk down the equivalent of $ 40, 000 or so in cash, goods or services for placement.

▪ The beverage giant wants you to plunk down your money and decide for yourself.

pull down a menu

▪ I could not pull down a menu.

▪ The pull down menus make the game easy to play and the smooth animation help keep the interest of younger players.

▪ The program has a pull down menu interface for ease of use.

▪ The program uses pull down menus and is easy to follow.

pull down sth

pull sb down

pull sth ↔ down

put (sth) down

▪ As the stage approached, I put one down and waved violently.

▪ Culley put the phone down, then dialled Mike Dawson's number.

▪ He asked two questions and put the phone down.

▪ I did not want to put it down.

▪ Minna put the letter down and shuddered.

▪ Parents may carry her around constantly afraid to put her down for fear she will burst into tears again.

▪ She put her drink down on the bar.

▪ When I put that phone down, I was in tears.

put down a motion/an amendment

put down a revolution/revolt/rebellion etc

▪ My father's father, a soldier in the Black Watch, had helped put down a rebellion one Easter in Dublin.

put down roots

▪ Just as I was putting down roots, our family had to move up north.

▪ For Ada, putting down roots opens a new life of discipline and learning.

▪ However, now that they had family responsibilities and were beginning to put down roots, they returned to their former church-going.

▪ I was going to put down roots, achieve something, give meaning to my existence.

▪ In their place, developers are building upscale subdivisions that tend to cater to newcomers less willing to put down roots.

▪ It puts down roots 10 feet deep, easily withstanding drought and even frequent fires.

▪ Meanwhile, people who might want to put down roots in the community are finding it prohibitively expensive.

▪ She's had 8 quarters, so it's hard to put down roots.

▪ What better way to put down roots, and what more suitable time than in the spring?

put it down to experience

put sb down

▪ As the stage approached, I put one down and waved violently.

▪ Culley put the phone down, then dialled Mike Dawson's number.

▪ He asked two questions and put the phone down.

▪ I did not want to put it down.

▪ Minna put the letter down and shuddered.

▪ Parents may carry her around constantly afraid to put her down for fear she will burst into tears again.

▪ She put her drink down on the bar.

▪ When I put that phone down, I was in tears.

put sb down

▪ As the stage approached, I put one down and waved violently.

▪ Culley put the phone down, then dialled Mike Dawson's number.

▪ He asked two questions and put the phone down.

▪ I did not want to put it down.

▪ Minna put the letter down and shuddered.

▪ Parents may carry her around constantly afraid to put her down for fear she will burst into tears again.

▪ She put her drink down on the bar.

▪ When I put that phone down, I was in tears.

put sb down for £5/£20 etc

put sb ↔ down

▪ As the stage approached, I put one down and waved violently.

▪ Culley put the phone down, then dialled Mike Dawson's number.

▪ He asked two questions and put the phone down.

▪ I did not want to put it down.

▪ Minna put the letter down and shuddered.

▪ Parents may carry her around constantly afraid to put her down for fear she will burst into tears again.

▪ She put her drink down on the bar.

▪ When I put that phone down, I was in tears.

put sth ↔ down

▪ As the stage approached, I put one down and waved violently.

▪ Culley put the phone down, then dialled Mike Dawson's number.

▪ He asked two questions and put the phone down.

▪ I did not want to put it down.

▪ Minna put the letter down and shuddered.

▪ Parents may carry her around constantly afraid to put her down for fear she will burst into tears again.

▪ She put her drink down on the bar.

▪ When I put that phone down, I was in tears.

put sth ↔ down

▪ As the stage approached, I put one down and waved violently.

▪ Culley put the phone down, then dialled Mike Dawson's number.

▪ He asked two questions and put the phone down.

▪ I did not want to put it down.

▪ Minna put the letter down and shuddered.

▪ Parents may carry her around constantly afraid to put her down for fear she will burst into tears again.

▪ She put her drink down on the bar.

▪ When I put that phone down, I was in tears.

put sth ↔ down

▪ As the stage approached, I put one down and waved violently.

▪ Culley put the phone down, then dialled Mike Dawson's number.

▪ He asked two questions and put the phone down.

▪ I did not want to put it down.

▪ Minna put the letter down and shuddered.

▪ Parents may carry her around constantly afraid to put her down for fear she will burst into tears again.

▪ She put her drink down on the bar.

▪ When I put that phone down, I was in tears.

put sth/sb ↔ down

▪ As the stage approached, I put one down and waved violently.

▪ Culley put the phone down, then dialled Mike Dawson's number.

▪ He asked two questions and put the phone down.

▪ I did not want to put it down.

▪ Minna put the letter down and shuddered.

▪ Parents may carry her around constantly afraid to put her down for fear she will burst into tears again.

▪ She put her drink down on the bar.

▪ When I put that phone down, I was in tears.

put the phone down

▪ After I have put the phone down I sit gazing at Kyle on the opposite side of the airwell.

▪ After she had put the phone down, she felt in a daze.

▪ And he had just put the phone down on the only man who could ruin it all for him.

▪ Be brisk, polite, and put the phone down.

▪ Culley put the phone down, then dialled Mike Dawson's number.

▪ He put the phone down and listened to its ringing - its machine persistence.

▪ He put the phone down in the dining room.

▪ He put the phone down on the cradle and stared at it.

put your foot down

▪ Ed was talking about dropping out of school, but Mom and Dad put their foot down.

▪ I wanted to take a year off before college, but my mother put her foot down.

▪ You'd better put your foot down before those kids get completely out of control.

▪ I put my feet down carefully.

▪ I put my foot down and the car began to move forward.

▪ Justice puts its foot down on Oxie.

▪ Later still My silly wee sister has put her feet down and refuses to let me near her Power Pack.

▪ Rice, however, put his foot down and made what he called his first policy decision.

▪ She didn't answer, just put her foot down and sent the Cortina faster and faster through the night.

▪ They could have put their foot down and dragged us into court.

▪ We were nearing the camp, so I aimed for the ruts in the track and put my foot down.

put/lay/set down a marker

rain (down) blows/blows rain down

ram sth down sb's throat

▪ His teeth were even and white, and Bernice wanted to ram them down his throat.

▪ Jess felt like ramming it down his throat.

right up/down sb's alley

▪ The job sounds right up your alley.

▪ She said, I will tell you this Bobby Kennedy is right up my alley.

roll a window down

run down sth

run sb/sth down

run sb/sth ↔ down

sell sb down the river

▪ The workers were promised that they would not lose their jobs as a result of the merger. Later they found out that they had been sold down the river.

send sb down

send shivers/chills up (and down) your spine

▪ Stephen King's novels have sent shivers up readers' spines for more than 20 years.

▪ He kicked her sending shivers up her spine; again she yelped, and everything turned black.

▪ We both kept waiting for the moment when the experience would overwhelm us and send chills up our spines.

send sth ↔ down

settle (sb) down

▪ As she settled back down it continued to cook and burst into flames.

▪ At that time, diesel prices in California spiked briefly, but settled back down by the end of that year.

▪ Before she could say any more, he settled the helmet down over his head and fastened the strap.

▪ Find a doctor, maybe; something to settle him down.

▪ He settled his weight down on the step beside her and dwelt anxiously on her state.

▪ He nods stiffly, then settles his chin down on his chest, scowling.

▪ Try to settle the puppy down here before going to bed.

▪ We wound up taking him for long rides in the car to settle him down.

shake sb ↔ down

shake sb/sth ↔ down

shin up/down

▪ Craig shinned down the rope to where we were standing.

▪ I locked myself out of the house and had to shinny up a drainpipe to get in.

▪ We watched as small boys shinned up palm trees and brought coconuts down.

▪ Boys and girls shinned up trees to 10p off branches.

▪ But can not phone him from Twills as Mr Twill would insist on shinning up drainpipe himself and break femur.

▪ Dave shinned up a handy conifer.

▪ He nodded encouragement to his fellows, and they shinned up after him and dropped down into the stockade.

▪ Maintenance men could tell whether a pole - wooden or concrete - is dangerously cracked before shinning up it.

▪ No fire-escape, no convenient drainpipe anyone could shin up.

▪ Nothing as cheap as an open window or shinning down a drainpipe at midnight or down paying a suitcase full of bricks.

▪ The animal was so tame that it shinned up his leg and dived into a deep pocket.

shinny up/down

▪ His brother was eight and spent two days learning how to shinny up to the office.

▪ The boy panicked and tried more desperately to shinny up the mast.

shut sb ↔ down

sit down and do sth

▪ First we should sit down and work out the financing.

▪ But I found I could just sit down and play by ear.

▪ He sat down and pushed at the lid with one filthy paw.

▪ Something that makes you want to sit down and take notice.

▪ The harvesters stopped work, sat down and started to eat and drink.

▪ The Springboks sat down and waited.

▪ Then she sat down and started to eat.

▪ Then the Kuchas sat down and ate the fish in his honor.

▪ We can all sit down and analyze.

sit sb down

stand (sb) down

▪ Gabriel had the window wide open and was standing there looking down at him.

▪ He stands looking down at me.

▪ He stood looking down at Tibbles, breathing heavily.

▪ He walked slowly over to the door, and stood looking down at her.

▪ Jane crossed to the windows and stood staring down into the street.

▪ Then he stood looking down at Tim Reagan.

sth will go down in history

▪ 1989 will go down in history as the year in which Stalinist Communism ended.

▪ This Minister will go down in history as the Minister who killed off small shops in Britain.

take sth lying down

▪ We are not going to take this verdict lying down. There will be protests.

▪ And, on yer bike: The charity rider who's taking it all lying down.

▪ But Will took it lying down - all in a good cause of course.

▪ Carl however was too active mentally to take this lying down.

▪ Mr Estrada has not taken the storm lying down.

▪ Perhaps you're not a person to take criticism lying down and you have had some sharp exchanges with your friend.

▪ The Socialists, though, are not taking it lying down.

▪ They're not taking it lying down.

▪ They are not taking things lying down as many other Third World people tend to do.

take/bring sb down a peg (or two)

▪ No harm in taking Evans down a peg.

the thumbs up/down

▪ But the docs just gave me the thumbs up.

▪ East Kilbride celebrates as tyre plant proposal given the thumbs down.

▪ I can see it now: In toga and laurel wreath, Big Al will give the thumbs up or thumbs down.

▪ In Grampian, 80 percent. of general practitioners gave it the thumbs down.

▪ London movie-goers gave Glengarry Glen Ross, about cut-throat estate agents, the thumbs up this week.

▪ The Dole campaign has not yet given the thumbs up, preferring to wait for the results of Super Tuesday.

▪ The question, which had been popped earlier on the stadium's electronic scoreboard, got the thumbs up.

▪ Top analysts gave it the thumbs up and prices took off.

throw down the gauntlet

▪ At this point Morag Harkness, Sales Manager threw down the gauntlet and challenged the guys to a netball match.

▪ Cerda interviewed those named in his testimony, including Wally Fuentes Morrison, and then threw down the gauntlet to Pinochet.

▪ Fresh from their success they have thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the Group.

▪ It's going on five years since Earl Woods threw down the gauntlet and the snickering has stopped.

throw yourself at/on/into/down etc

▪ At this stage, the urge to do something was unfocused, but it was extraordinary how people threw themselves into it.

▪ Grief-stricken, he threw himself on her..

▪ He kicked it in, threw himself on the floor and rolled under the bed.

▪ I threw myself down on the bed and sobbed bitterly.

▪ I threw myself into organising the funeral, picking out the music I wanted played.

▪ Like Billy McFadzean who in 1916 threw himself on two bombs to save his comrades in the trenches of the Somme.

▪ They threw themselves down on the street or took shelter behind cars and in doorways.

▪ You put him in a situation where women are throwing themselves at him.

turn sth upside down

▪ A distorted religion has turned the world upside down, denying that anything ever existed before itself.

▪ I turn the box upside down and bring it out empty.

▪ The girl was turning everything upside down.

▪ The history of implants has been equally painful; implants can shift or turn themselves upside down.

▪ They studied the map for a while, scratched their heads, turned it upside down and studied it some more.

▪ We could turn the glass upside down and sideways without having the water pour out because air pressure pushes in all directions.

▪ Yet with an appealing brew of nationalism and promise of democratic reform, Kostunica has since turned Yugoslav politics upside down.

two/three etc doors away/down/up

▪ Across the world, or two doors down the corridor.

▪ Freda Berkeley misses her and another neighbour, the writer Patrick Kinross, who lived two doors away.

▪ He thanked the colonel for the interview and returned doggedly to his pistol lessons in the basement range two doors away.

▪ He tried the house opposite, and was told two doors down.

▪ I took the keenest pleasure in expelling Phetlock from my old office, two doors down from the Oval.

▪ Mr Potts and the matrons left them in the church and went to stay two doors away, in a hotel.

▪ The guest room's two doors down the corridor.

▪ The second was in another bin beside the Argos showroom two doors away.

up and down

▪ I want you kids to stop running up and down in the hall.

▪ All night he parades up and down the bar like a brawny old cockerel.

▪ He went down early each morning and jumped up and down in the briny, enjoying every minute of it.

▪ If you build your jig slightly larger than your posts it will slide up and down more easily.

▪ She opened doors, walked up and down, inspected rooms.

▪ The old woman nodded, left and right and up and down.

▪ The whole place reverberated with noise, feet pounding up and down stairs, children yelling, women shouting, doors banging.

▪ Two dancers in harness are walking up and down the pole.

▪ When the Goldwater scholarship was announced this spring, Flores jumped up and down, not for joy, but from surprise.

ups and downs

▪ We had a lot of ups and downs in our marriage.

▪ Eachuinn Odhar had his ups and downs, but more downs than ups.

▪ If you're prepared to take a five-year view, these ups and downs are worth enduring.

▪ Most older people cope with the ups and downs of their daily lives.

▪ Relearning is a longer, gradual process with ups and downs and it is too easy just to give up.

▪ There have been ups and downs of course.

▪ There have been ups and downs, yes, but on the whole my fortunes have grown.

▪ We need to hold tenaciously to our commitment to talk over the ups and downs of our days.

wear sb ↔ down

when the chips are down

▪ When the chips were down, you felt he could handle the situation.

▪ As you know, when the chips are down Leslie Bence comes out fighting.

▪ It is disappointing to find that, when the chips are down, your paper is no better than the rest.

▪ The implication, they fear, is that when the chips are down it is only rational human beings that really matter.

wind sth ↔ down

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

▪ Angie, why don't you sit down and relax?

▪ Can I turn the TV down a little?

▪ David bent down to tie his shoelace.

▪ Grit and sand can wear down every moving part in your bike.

▪ House prices have come down in recent months.

▪ I have his number down somewhere.

▪ I think I'll go and lie down for a while.

▪ Keep your speed down.

▪ Lease a new Ford today for no money down and low monthly payments.

▪ Lots of trees were blown down onto houses when a tornado hit Cleveland County.

▪ The next day, the sky was clear and the sun beat down.

▪ The only thing I don't like about living down here is the traffic.

▪ There's a parking lot down there, below the cliff.

▪ We're going down to the mall and look at those cars they have there.

▪ We've got most of the old Tarzan books down in the basement.

▪ Well, we could tape the mat down with duct tape.

▪ Were there many people down at the beach today?

II.verb

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADVERB

here

▪ The commissioner still thinks of himself as the boss, capable of putting a foot down here or there.

▪ Yeah, not too many guineas down here.

▪ I want you down here where I can keep an eye on you.

there

▪ Is there anyone else down there?

▪ She died and they put me in an orphanage. Down there at Toner Institute.

▪ Petey was an eyewitness to the fight down there, Lois had reasoned.

■ NOUN

percent

▪ The inflation rate for 1996 was 2. 1 percent, down from 2. 4 percent the previous year.

▪ The 10-year Treasury note recently yielded 5. 54 percent, down from 5. 77 percent a week ago.

▪ Fixed mortgage rates averaged 7. 03 percent, down from 9. 15 percent a year ago.

▪ Adjustable rates averaged 5. 43 percent, down from 6. 82 in January 1995.

▪ Fifteen-year mortgage rates fell to 6. 53 percent, down from 6. 59 percent in the prior week.

▪ The headline rate of inflation was 3. 1 percent in November, down from 3. 2 percent a month earlier.

plane

▪ Underwater wrecks are strewn along the coast and downed planes and tanks emerge from the jungle overgrowth.

▪ Airlines have separate insurance for the passengers and for the downed plane.

▪ S.-fired missile downed the plane.

road

▪ But a half mile down the road after some other diversion, I lose him.

▪ For the time being I park next to the students' cars down by the main road.

■ VERB

keep

▪ I slid off the seat, keeping my eyes down, expecting to see a smear of red blood on the chair.

▪ Presumably to keep the costs down, director Bert I.. Gordon shot real grasshoppers climbing up a postcard of the building.

▪ One whole day they stayed in Buchanan Street. Up and down with giggles and stares.

▪ Around and about. Up and down, down and up, the usual story.