talk down

British  

verb

1. to behave (towards) in a superior or haughty manner

2. (tr) to override (a person or argument) by continuous or loud talking

3. (tr) to give instructions to (an aircraft) by radio to enable it to land

---

talk down Idioms  

1. Belittle, depreciate, as in They talked down the importance of the move .

2. Silence someone by speaking loudly and persistently, as in They talked down whatever objections she brought up . [Early 1800s]

3. Help an aircraft to land by giving directions via radio, as in The fog was so thick the control tower had to talk us down . [c. 1940]

4. See talk down to .

---

Example Sentences

With car prices soaring, one man deploys dealer speak to talk down the sticker price on behalf of buyers: “You’re hiring a middleman to deal with the middleman to make the middleman more efficient.”

From The Wall Street Journal

After spending more than a decade selling cars and auto financing at dealerships, he now uses his experience to try to talk down the sticker prices.

From The Wall Street Journal

Now he deploys his fluency in car-dealer speak and his encyclopedic knowledge of dealer inventory to try to talk down the sticker prices.

From The Wall Street Journal

The glass and fiber maker dropped 7% on Thursday after Broadcom CEO Hock E. Tan talked down the near-term potential of a switch to fiber from copper for some networking infrastructure at data centers.

From Barron's

She always hated being talked down to or told that she was too young for something.

From Literature