live down

present singular third person lives down · participle present living down · participle past lived down · past lived down

1. informalTo live so as to subdue or refute.

   to live down slander

   1 more example

   Local opinion held Mr. Underwood to be an intense, profane little man, whose father in a fey fit of humor christened Braxton Bragg, a name Mr. Underwood had done his best to live down.

   1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC

2. idiomaticTo cause others to forget about something embarrassing that happened to oneself.

   I'll never be able to live down that time my pants fell down at the school dance.