take down a notch
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Also, take down a peg. Deflate or humble someone, as in He's so arrogant that I wish someone would take him down a notch, or That defeat took them down a peg. Both notch and peg in this idiom allude to a series, the former of indentations, the latter of knobs, used to raise or lower something. Specifically, peg alludes to the pegs used to lower a ship's colors. Their figurative use dates from the second half of the 1600s. Also see cut down, def. 4.
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Words nearby take down a notch
take care of, take-charge, take cover, take doing, takedown, take down a notch, take effect, take exception to, take five, take flight, take for
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
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