talk down

talked down; talking down; talks down

Definition of talk down

intransitive verb

: to speak in a condescending or oversimplified fashion

transitive verb

: to disparage or belittle by talking

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Examples of talk down in a Sentence

a company that prefers to talk up its own products rather than talk down those of its competitors

Recent Examples on the Web So Mullen was willing to talk down his old friend’s favorite team. — Doug Lesmerises, cleveland, "Ohio State football’s College Football Playoff case and the nonsense arguments from the SEC: Doug Lesmerises," 13 Dec. 2020 And along came Animaniacs, a kids' show that didn't talk down to me. — Kate Cox, Ars Technica, "The Animaniacs reboot, reviewed: Zany is harder to pull off in 2020," 23 Nov. 2020 At one point, Milwaukee County Corporation Counsel Margaret Daun told one of the Trump campaign’s attorneys not to talk down to her. — Laura Schulte, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Recount off to a slow start, especially in Milwaukee where Trump campaign observers object to thousands of ballots, envelopes," 21 Nov. 2020 Two, those very same people in the news, on television, social media, and the Internet often talk down to voters, of any race or color. — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, "Trump, Race, and Class," 8 Sep. 2020 In a call with the president, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reportedly managed to talk down Trump from immediate intervention. — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, "For Whom the Tok Tiks," 6 Aug. 2020 Hope Dickson Leach, a screenwriter, director and former student, said Professor Jelinek had never talked down to anyone and had always sought to help students find their own voice. — Damien Cave, New York Times, "Milena Jelinek, Screenwriter and Educator, Dies at 84," 29 Apr. 2020 Trump for days has talked down the risk of the virus amid a market selloff and rapidly rising global cases. — Josh Wingrove, Bloomberg.com, "President Trump Says First U.S. Coronavirus Death Was ‘High-Risk Patient’," 29 Feb. 2020 Nobody’s going to bully me, nobody’s going to talk down to me, and nobody’s going to pull the kind of (expletive) that’s been pulled on a lot of people in this chair. — Erin Jensen, USA TODAY, "When does ‘The View’ return for Season 23? And where did the co-hosts leave off?," 1 Sep. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'talk down.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

18 Dec 2020

Cite this Entry

“Talk down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/talk%20down. Accessed 17 Jan. 2021.

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