simmer down

present singular third person simmers down · participle present simmering down · participle past simmered down · past simmered down

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo decrease in intensity of anger, agitation, or excitement.

   You need to simmer down and stop yelling at me.

   5 more examples

   It took a while for the heated debate to simmer down and for people to start listening to each other.

   "Silence! Now ye had better go slow, my good fellow. This is two or three times you've tried to get off some of your insolence. Lip won't do here. You've got to simmer down."

   1870, Mark Twain, Goldsmith's Friend Abroad Again, letter 4

   The agitation, thus deprived of its chief hope, might very well have been expected to simmer down, to die away slowly.

   1910, Stewart Edward White, chapter 73, in The Rules of the Game

   Simmer down; you're lickin' too hot (So) / Simmer down; soon you'll get dropped (So) / Simmer down; can you hear what I say? / Simmer down; then why won't you, why won't you, why won't you simmer down? / Simmer down

   1964, Coxsone Dodd, Bob Marley, “Simmer Down”, in The Wailing Wailers, performed by the Wailers, track 12

   Although the street demonstrations have simmered down, protests have continued in other forms.

   2003 June 30, Nazila Fathi, “British Minister Presses Iran To Allow Nuclear Inspections”, in New York Times, retrieved 09 Apr 2009

   Synonyms: calm down, cool off, settle down, relax, unwind, pacify, compose · Antonyms: simmer up