put down to

present singular third person puts down to · participle present putting down to

1. idiomaticTo ascribe; to assume to be the cause of a situation.

   I put the high crime rate down to the high unemployment.

   2 more examples

   Collins' death can be put down to his devil-may-care attitude—his decision to journey through hostile territory in a large convoy, the inadequate choice of the members of the convoy, and the tactics he adopted in the ambush. For all the debate about ballistics and entry and exit wounds, and the use of powerful historical imaginations, it matters more that Collins was killed than how he was killed. Concentration on the events at Béal na mBláth has, moreover, often meant a failure to place them in the overall context of the war.

   1988, Michael Hopkinson, Green Against Green: The Irish Civil War

   Out in the ground, meanwhile, it was particularly disappointing to hear former England captain Andrew Strauss put the febrile atmosphere down to “people who don’t normally come to Lord’s”.

   2023 July 4, Marina Hyde, “Who’s for political Bazball with Rishi? Voters? Tories? Anyone?”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: attribute, chalk up to, impute, accredit, ascribe, attach, attribute, chalk up to