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Synonyms

live down

British  
/ lɪv /

verb

  1. (tr, adverb) to withstand the effects of (a crime, mistake, etc) by waiting until others forget or forgive it

"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
live down Idioms  

  1. Overcome or reduce the shame of a mistake, misdeed, or the like. It is often put in the negative, as in I'm afraid I'll never live down that tactless remark I made. [Mid-1800s]

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.

My in-laws live down in Long Beach, so after breakfast we might take the dogs down to Long Beach.

From Los Angeles Times

The neighborhood looked a bit iffy, so they texted and asked, since I live down here, if I would take a look.

From The Wall Street Journal

Grandpa and Grandma were living down in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

From Literature

“I know some upstanding people who’ve lived down worse than that. I’m not going to tell you which ones, though.”

From Literature

“I had an uncle. A great-uncle. Saul. He lived down South, scraping by, like our people had to do in those days.”

From Literature

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.