put down — to criticize or insult someone
phrasal verbB2IELTS 6+informalcommon
To say something that makes someone feel stupid or unimportant.
Say it like a native
Textbook He habitually disparages his colleagues in meetings.
Native He's always putting his colleagues down.
'Put down' is the everyday verb for belittling someone; 'disparage' is formal.
Pattern: put down + noun/pronoun
In use
- He always puts people down to make himself feel better.relationships
- In my opinion, it's important not to put others down, especially when working in a team, because it can hurt their confidence.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ He always puts down me in front of others.
✓ He always puts me down in front of others.
With a pronoun, the object goes in the middle: 'put me down'.
Common collocations
put + someone + down— me down, her down, others down, down in public
Don't confuse it
Different from 'put down' meaning to place something somewhere.
Related
- put down (to place something on a surface) — Another meaning of 'put down' is 'to place something on a surface'; compare the examples to keep the meanings separate.