beat down

beat down idiom
  1. Force or drive down; defeat or subdue. For example, “And finally to beat down Satan under our feet” (The Book of Common Prayer, 1552). [c. 1400]
  2. Strike violently, as in the The sun kept beating down on us all day long. [Mid-1800s]
  3. beat someone down. Make someone lower a price, as in He's always trying to beat us down. Economist Jeremy Bentham used this idiom in 1793: “Thus monopoly will beat down prices.” [Slang; late 1700s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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