dumb down

British

verb

(tr) to make or become less intellectually demanding or sophisticated

attempts to dumb down news coverage

"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

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.

He was derided as a snob when he suggested, in a few statements over the years, that he had to dumb down his work for uncultured audiences.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 29, 2025

"I don't think we should try to dumb down golf to appeal to more people," he said.

From BBC • Jan. 28, 2025

And the reason that’s so important is because usually by the time concepts get to our size, they start to dumb down or do things differently, not realizing that the consumer will notice over time.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 18, 2024

But Jason didn’t dumb down any of his writing.

From New York Times • Aug. 15, 2022

I wondered if she was ignoring my question or simply weighing how best to dumb down the answer.

From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023