take down

present singular third person takes down · participle present taking down · past took down · participle past taken down

1. To remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed.

   He took down the picture and replaced it with the framed photograph.

2. To remove something from a hanging position.

   We need to take down the curtains to be cleaned.

3. To remove something from a website.

   We must take this fake news item down today.

4. To write down as a note, especially to record something spoken.

   If you have a pen, you can take down my phone number.

   1 more example

   But if you ask me to bus my children / I hope the cops take down your name

   1966, Phil Ochs, “Love Me, I'm a Liberal”, in Phils Ochs in Concert

5. To remove a temporary structure such as scaffolding.

   When everything else is packed, we can take down the tent.

6. To lower an item of clothing without removing it.

   The doctor asked me to take down my trousers.

7. To arrest someone or to place them in detention.

   We've got enough evidence now to take McFee down.

   1 more example

   You have been found guilty. Take the prisoner down.

8. To swallow.

   I took down the medicine and soon felt better.

   1 more example

   Marcus Seltz, who can take down a bucket of crab legs like a freaking combine.

   2012, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge, page 121

9. To defeat; to destroy or kill (a person).

   It took me eight years to get enough on the asshole to try and take him down.

   2012, Kira Sinclair, Take It Down, →ISBN, page 191

   2 more examples

   They'd had occasion to see Peyton Armistead in all his righteous fury and she knew they wouldn't hesitate to take him down if she gave the word.

   2014, Mallery Malone, Take Down, →ISBN

   So Marinus, me and a few other unthanked individuals - Atemporals for the most part, with some mortal collaborators — make it our business to ...take them down.

   2014, David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks, →ISBN, page 431

10. combat sportsTo force one’s opponent off their feet in order to transition from striking to grappling in jujitsu, mixed martial arts, etc.
11. colloquialintransitiveTo collapse or become incapacitated from illness or fatigue.

    My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees, / And they rode the truck till they took down and died.

    1948, “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)”, Woody Guthrie (lyrics)

    1 more example

    "[…]I mind the year after we came, my father took down with the ague, and things looked dark enough for a while; but, when old Billy Slater, on the Clear Fork killed a fat cow, he loaded a lot of the choicest on to a horse and brought it to us;[…]"

    1880, Albert Adams Graham, History of Richland County, Ohio, page 254

12. transitiveTo reduce.

    to take the volume down a bit