comedown

[ kuhm-doun ]

/ ˈkʌmˌdaʊn /

Save This Word!

See synonyms for comedown on Thesaurus.com

noun

an unexpected or humiliating descent from dignity, importance, or wealth.

QUIZ

CUDDLE UP! A COZY QUIZ ON FALL WORDS HAS ARRIVED

If autumn is your ideal season, spice up your repertoire of "fall" vocabulary with this quiz on some warm and vivid descriptive words for the season.

Question 1 of 10

Which of the following words means “to make a crackling sound; crackle”?

crisp

crepitate

fuscous

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Meet Grammar Coach

Write or paste your essay, email, or story into Grammar Coach and get grammar help

Improve Your Writing

Meet Grammar CoachImprove Your Writing

Origin of comedown

First recorded in 1555–65; noun use of verb phrase come down

Words nearby comedown

comedist, comedo, comedocarcinoma, comedogenic, comedo nevus, comedown, come down on, come down the pike, come down to, come down with, comedy

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

How to use comedown in a sentence

One is as a big comedown from the size of the crowds that watched her on broadcast television.
Can Lance Armstrong Save OWN?|Megan McArdle|January 14, 2013|DAILY BEAST
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
I got the impression he was a bitter man because, I imagine when he defected to Russia, it was comedown.
Warren Commission (8 of 26): Hearings Vol. VIII (of 15)|The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
Poor Peggy—it was rather a comedown after her fairy visions.
Little Miss Peggy|Mrs. Molesworth

"So long as nobody in society hears of this sudden comedown, we shall pull through," he said.
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris|Honore de Balzac
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

British Dictionary definitions for comedown

comedown

/ (ˈkʌmˌdaʊn) /

noun

a decline in position, status, or prosperity

informal a disappointment

slang a depressed or unexcited state

verb come down (intr, adverb)

to come to a place regarded as lower

to lose status, wealth, etc (esp in the phrase to come down in the world)

to reach a decisionthe report came down in favour of a pay increase

(often foll by to) to be handed down or acquired by tradition or inheritance

British to leave college or university

(foll by with) to succumb (to illness or disease)

(foll by on) to rebuke or criticize harshly

(foll by to) to amount in essence (to)it comes down to two choices

slang to lose the effects of a drug and return to a normal or more normal state

Australian informal (of a river) to flow in flood

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

Other Idioms and Phrases with comedown

come down

Lose wealth or position, as in After the market crashed, the Tates really came down in the world. A 1382 translation of the Bible by followers of John Wycliffe had this term: “Come down from glory, sit in thirst” (Jeremiah 48:18).

Become reduced in size or amount, be lowered, as in Interest rates will have to come down before the economy recovers. [Mid-1600s]

Be handed down by inheritance, tradition, or a higher authority. For example, This painting has come down to us from our great-grandparents, or These stories have come down through the generations, or An indictment finally came down. [c. 1400]

Also, go down. Happen, occur, as in What's coming down tonight? [Slang; 1960s]

comedown

Origin of comedown

Words nearby comedown

Words related to comedown

How to use comedown in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for comedown

Other Idioms and Phrases with comedown