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comedown

[kuhm-doun]
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noun
  1. an unexpected or humiliating descent from dignity, importance, or wealth.
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Origin of comedown

First recorded in 1555–65; noun use of verb phrase come down
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for comedown

Historical Examples

  • They say it is fine and homelike there, but it will surely be some comedown after Rue Brea.

    Molly Brown's Orchard Home

    Nell Speed

  • Poor Peggy—it was rather a comedown after her fairy visions.

    Little Miss Peggy

    Mrs. Molesworth

  • And at Anagni he may certainly rest for the night, though his quarters may be a comedown not only from Rome but from Velletri.

    Studies of Travel: Italy

    Edward A. Freeman

  • There was a comedown now of feathered hats, and point collars, and curled hair; and leathern jerkin should have its day.

    The Pigeon Pie

    Charlotte M. Yonge

  • I mean to land up in Minsk, working in a grubby little factory is quite a comedown.

    Warren Commission (5 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15)

    The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy

British Dictionary definitions for comedown

comedown

noun
  1. a decline in position, status, or prosperity
  2. informal a disappointment
  3. slang a depressed or unexcited state
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verb come down (intr, adverb)
  1. to come to a place regarded as lower
  2. to lose status, wealth, etc (esp in the phrase to come down in the world)
  3. to reach a decisionthe report came down in favour of a pay increase
  4. (often foll by to) to be handed down or acquired by tradition or inheritance
  5. British to leave college or university
  6. (foll by with) to succumb (to illness or disease)
  7. (foll by on) to rebuke or criticize harshly
  8. (foll by to) to amount in essence (to)it comes down to two choices
  9. slang to lose the effects of a drug and return to a normal or more normal state
  10. Australian informal (of a river) to flow in flood
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012