come down—
1. collapse; fall:
- Several trees came down in last night’s storm.
2. (of a plane) be destroyed:
- Three of the enemy planes came down in the battle.
3. (of a plane) land:
- The plane came down safely in spite of the mist.
4. (of prices) be reduced:
- Prices are much more likely to go up than to come down.
5. (of wind) subside:
- We had very nice sailing for two hours then the wind came down and we had to start motorsailing.
6. be inherited:
- This ring has come down in my family for two centuries.
7. become or be considered less valuable:
- John really came down in my opinion after that.
8. (U.S. coll.) happen; take place:
- When something like this comes down, I have to stop and think things over.
go down—
1. = come down 1:
- The man slipped on the ice and went down heavily.
2. (of the sun) set:
- As the sun went down the whole sky became suffused with a red glow.
3. (of a vessel) sink; drown:
- The ship struck a hidden reef and went down with all hands.
4. = come down 4:
- It’s a strange thing, but prices never go down.
5. = come down 5:
- If the wind doesn’t go down before three o’clock, we won’t be able to take off today.
6. be reduced in amount:
- If our stocks of food go down much further, we shall have a hard winter.
7. suffer a decline in quality or appearance:
- The neighborhood has gone down since those rough people moved in.
8. be recorded:
- Everything you say will go down in our records.
9. (of a speech, performance, etc.) be accepted; be received:
- How did your speech go down?
10. fail; be defeated:
- One of my best students went down in the examination!
11. (of food or medicine) be swallowed:
- The medicine went down without any trouble at all.
12. = come down 8:
- Something strange is going down around here.
See also: go below / go under.