come down on
Idioms-
Also, come down upon.
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Also, come down hard on . Punish or reprimand severely. For example, My professor is going to come down on me for not completing the paper , or The judge promised to come down hard on drug dealers . [Early 1600s] Also see like a ton of bricks .
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Oppose, voice one's opposition, as in The President came down on the new budget cuts, promising to veto them . [Late 1800s]
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come down on the side of . Make a choice or decision in favor of, plump for, as in I'll come down on the side of those who are needy .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"It's very rocky, and the fossils are in cliffs on the shore. Paleontologists hate excavating in cliffs, because the cliff could come down on you."
From Science Daily • Feb. 11, 2026
Few studies come down on the side of large-scale job destruction.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 5, 2025
Luria didn’t outright deny the existence of an AI bubble—but he didn’t come down on one side of the argument, either.
From Barron's • Dec. 4, 2025
“Eventually, the heat is going to come down on this.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 21, 2025
“If we try to climb out, the bones will shift. There’s tons of them here. We’ll fall to the bottom, and they’ll come down on top of us.”
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
