go down

British  

verb

1. (also preposition) to move or lead to or as if to a lower place or level; sink, decline, decrease, etc

   the ship went down this morning

   prices are going down

   the path goes down to the sea

2. to be defeated; lose

3. to be remembered or recorded (esp in the phrase go down in history )

4. to be received

   his speech went down well

5. (of food) to be swallowed

6. bridge to fail to make the number of tricks previously contracted for

7. to leave a college or university at the end of a term or the academic year

8. (usually foll by with) to fall ill; be infected

9. (of a celestial body) to sink or set

   the sun went down before we arrived

10. slang to go to prison, esp for a specified period

    he went down for six months

11. slang to happen

12. slang to perform cunnilingus or fellatio on

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go down Idioms  

1. Descend to a lower level; drop below the horizon, fall to the ground, or sink. For example, Don't let the baby go down the stairs alone , or The sun went down behind the hill , or I was afraid the plane would go down , or The ship went down and all hands were lost . [c. 1300]

2. Experience defeat or ruin, as in They went down fighting , or The boxer went down in the first round . [Late 1500s]

3. Decrease, subside, as in After Christmas prices will go down , or As soon as the swelling goes down it won't hurt as much . [Second half of 1600s]

4. Be swallowed, as in This huge pill just won't go down , or Your wine goes down very smoothly . [Second half of 1500s]

5. Be accepted or believed, as in How did your speech at the convention go down? When it takes an object, it is put as go down with , as in It's hardly the truth but it still goes down with many voters . [c. 1600]

6. Also, go down in history . Be recorded or remembered, as in This event must go down in her book as one of the highlights of the year , or This debate will go down in history . [Late 1800s]

7. Occur, take place, as in Really crazy behavior was going down in the sixties . [ Slang ; mid-1900s] Also see come down , def. 4.

8. Be sent to prison, as in He went down for a five-year term . [ Slang ; c. 1900]

9. In the game of bridge, fail to fulfill one's contract (that is, take fewer than the required number of tricks), as in We had bid four hearts and the bad distribution made us go down . [Early 1900s] Also see the subsequent idioms beginning with go down .

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

go down

"He did a tackle right in front of the South Stand and the whole place erupted. I was thinking, 'you're going to go down well with this club'."

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

The cost of LTC insurance effectively doubles between your 60s and 70s, so you still have time to go down this route, if that’s what you choose.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026

It would also go down in history as one of the longest and most complex cases in the court’s history, staggering to a conclusion only in 1963.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

Yields go up as prices go down and vice versa.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

“I think Alan Greenspan will go down as the worst chairman of the Federal Reserve in history,” he’d say, when given the slightest chance.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

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Related Words

• collapse
• crumple
• decline
• decrease
• descend
• drop
• pitch
• plunge
• reduce
• sink
• slump
• tumble

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