talk down

talk down idiom
  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.

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.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.