stare down

Idioms  

1. Cause someone to waver or give in by or as if by being stared at. For example, Insisting on a better room, he stared down the manager until he got it. This expression alludes to staring at someone without being the first to blink or lower one's gaze. [Mid-1800s]

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Example Sentences

"Stare down the odds, and seize the day."

From The Verge • Aug. 17, 2015

"Oh, why"—hear Mr. Coxhead plead, In tones of sheer amazement— "Do hideous faces wrought in glass Stare down from every casement?"

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 104, May 6, 1893 by Burnand, F. C. (Francis Cowley), Sir