go down

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See also: godown

English

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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go down (third-person singular simple present goes down, present participle going down, simple past went down, past participle gone down)

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go,‎ down.
    You'll need to go down two floors to get to that office.
    • 1916, L. Frank Baum, Mary Louise in the Country, Chapter 19:
      I'm going straight down to the store to redeem that bill.
  2. To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
    go down to the grave
    1. (intransitive, of a heavenly body) Synonym of set, to disappear below the horizon.
      It'll be cooler once the sun goes down.
      • 2010, Stefan Molyneux, Heroism‎[1]:
        You can be heroic and start the process of truly saving the world before the Sun goes down tonight.
    2. (intransitive) To decrease; to change from a greater value to a lesser one.
      The unemployment rate has gone down significantly in recent months.
    3. (intransitive) To fall (down); to fall to the floor.
      The boxer went down in the second round, after a blow to the chin.
    4. (aviation, intransitive) To crash.
      The plane went down thirty miles from shore.
    5. (nautical, of a ship or boat) To sink.
      SMS Pommern went down with all hands at Jutland.
      • 2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 27:01 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918‎[2], archived from the original on 4 August 2022:
        Courageous went down about an hour ago. Glorious also went down toward the end of the battle, cause unknown. Lion is grounded in the shadows of Terschelling, and will not be recoverable. All of the other battlecruisers have medium to heavy damage of one degree or another, with the exception of Renown, which avoided shell damage but took a torpedo at the last moment and is heading home under tow, and, of course, New Zealand, whose sole casualty is a stoker overcome with heat exhaustion.
      • 2021 May 5, Drachinifel, 43:40 from the start, in Battle of Samar - What if TF34 was there?‎[3], archived from the original on 19 August 2022:
        […] meanwhile, Biloxi and Vincennes are both in the process of going down and being abandoned, whilst Miami is right on the knife-edge of being recoverable, with three destroyers clustering around offering pumping and additional damage-control crews to try and keep the light cruiser afloat.
  3. (intransitive) To be received or accepted.
    The news didn't go down well with her parents.
    1. (intransitive, UK, colloquial) To be pleasant, etc., when eaten or drunk.
      That meal went down a treat.
  4. (intransitive) To be blamed for something; to be the scapegoat; to go to prison.
    Rodney's not here; after the shootout, he went down and won't be back for at least a year.
  5. (intransitive) To be recorded or remembered (as).
    Today will go down as a monumental failure.
    • 2011 November 11, Rory Houston, “Estonia 0-4 Republic of Ireland”, in RTE Sport‎[4]:
      A stunning performance from the Republic of Ireland all but sealed progress to Euro 2012 as they crushed nine-man Estonia 4-0 in the first leg of the qualifying play-off tie in A Le Coq Arena in Tallinn. The scoreline did not flatter Ireland who's produced a composed, classy and determined showing that will go down as the highlight of the Giovanni Trapattioni era so far.
  6. (intransitive, slang) To take place, happen.
    • 1978, Lou Gramm, Mick Jones, Blue Morning, Blue Day:
      Three cups of coffee, but I can't clear my head from what went down last night.
    • 2020, Arlana Crane, Mordecai's Ashes:
      That was how a drug deal went down? […] Karl shook his head and pulled away from the curb, heading for his next drop and feeling distinctly uncomfortable about the mass of cash now keeping the drugs in his bags company.
  7. (intransitive, slang, African-American Vernacular, of a gang) To attack another gang.
  8. (intransitive, with on) To perform oral sex.
    He felt nervous about going down on his girlfriend for the first time.
    • 1995, “You Oughta Know”, in Jagged Little Pill, performed by Alanis Morissette:
      An older version of me / Is she perverted like me? / Would she go down on you in a theater?
  9. (intransitive, computing, engineering) To stop functioning, to go offline.
    Did the server just go down again? We'll have to reboot it.
    • 2023 January 26, Pip Dunn, “Merseyrail '777s' are OK for commuters”, in RAIL, number 988, page 60:
      As I say, it was a very hot day, and I found that the air-con was better on 777013 than either 777001 or 777009. There are, however, no emergency hopper windows, so if the air-con goes down on a hot day, you will cook!
  10. (intransitive, slang) To be soundly defeated.
    You guys are going down!
    • 2014, M. M. Koenig, Complicated, page 160:
      “It's time for a chicken fight,” Ziggy shouted, grabbing me around the waist.
      “Fuck yeah. You boys are going down,” Trey shouted […]
    • 2014, Tonia Inturrisi, The School Code Part 2: Makeover On The Inside:
      I reckon we'll beat you lot even without any guys on the team.” Robert gave me a grin. ... So he said to Shannon and me, “Okay, you girls are going down, right Jeremy,” and slapped him a high five.
    • 2019, Leighann Dobbs, Wrong Side of the Claw:
      Fluff started off down the sidewalk, his fluffy tail high in the air, then stopped and looked back at Pandora, saying, “You and your little gang of kitties are going down!”
  11. (intransitive, Oxbridge slang, dated) To physically leave one's university, either permanently or in some other non-transient sense (such as following the end of term).
    Following the death of her mother, she went down from Cambridge for a few days so as to attend the funeral.

Usage notes

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As down may be used as a preposition or adverb in its own right, the combination go down may also occur in cases where go is used literally. For example, down the street means "away from the speaker along the street in question" regardless of whether go is present:

  • She lives down the street.
  • Go down the street to get to her house.

Similarly,

  • That office is two floors down.
  • Go down two floors to get to that office.

Idioms such as these are properly considered senses of down.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  • “go down”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
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