come down

1. 1.

   move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way

   “The temperature is going down”

   “The barometer is falling”

   “The curtain fell on the diva”

   “Her hand went up and then fell again”

   Synonymsdescendfallgo down

   Broadertravel

   Narrowerprolapserappelunhorseavalanchedivesetdeclineprecipitatesinkcrash
2. 2.

   be the essential element

   “The proposal boils down to a compromise”

   Synonymsreduceboil down

   Broaderbecome
3. 3.

   fall from clouds

   “rain, snow and sleet were falling”

   “Vesuvius precipitated its fiery, destructive rage on Herculaneum”

   Synonymsprecipitatefall

   Narrowerrainspatsnowhailsleet
4. 4.

   get sick

   “She fell sick last Friday, and now she is in the hospital”

   Synonymssicken

   Broaderworsen

   Narrowerwancontractcanker
5. 5.

   criticize or reprimand harshly

   “The critics came down hard on the new play”

   Broaderknock

Questions about come down

What does come down mean?

come down means "move downward and lower, but not necessarily all the way". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for come down?

Close synonyms include descend, fall, go down, reduce, boil down. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is come down a common word?

come down is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.