1
general::
Phrase(s): beat down (on someone or something)
to fall on someone or something. • The rain beat down on us for an hour. • The rock slide beat down on the car and totally ruined the body., Phrase(s): beat something down
1. to break something in; to break through something. • Don’t beat the door down! I’m coming! • Please don’t beat down the door! 2. to flatten something. • Sam beat the veal down to the thickness of a half an inch. • First you beat down the meat to a very thin layer., Phrase(s): beat someone down
Fig. to defeat or demoralize someone. • The constant bombing finally beat them down. • The attackers beat down the defenders.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
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]
American Heritage Idioms