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beat down
Slang Dictionary

beat (so's) definition


  1. tv.
    to beat someone severely. : She threatened to beat my brains out.
  2. tv.
    to drive oneself hard (to accomplish something). : I beat my brains out all day to clean this house, and you come in and track up the carpet!
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

beat down

  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]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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