talk down

See also: talkdown

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

talk down (third-person singular simple present talks down, present participle talking down, simple past and past participle talked down)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To negotiate a lower price.

   If he offers a very high price, see if you can talk him down before you agree to anything.

2. (transitive, aviation, of ground control) To verbally assist someone to land an aircraft.
   • 1960 Feb, “Business with FAA”, in Flying Magazine, page 109:

     GET TALKED DOWN: When a pilot gets caught in weather, he may call the nearest tower for Ground Controlled Approach landing assistance, wherever the airport has GCA radar.

   • 2000, Larry King, Anything Goes!: What I've Learned from Pundits, Politicians, and Presidents, →ISBN, page 139:

     He got out, looked at me, and said, “I feel like Doris Day in Julie when she was talked down by air traffic control and landed the airplane.”[.]

   • 2008, Winston Fletcher, Powers of Persuasion: The Inside Story of British Advertising 1951-2000, →ISBN:

     Its Spielberg-inspired first commercial, in which Manhattan Island floated loftily through the sky and was talked down by air traffic control at Heathrow[.]

   • 2008, Nelson DeMille, Thomas Block, Mayday, →ISBN:

     In other words, if you talk him down and he crashes, you're worse off than if you hadn't tried.

3. (transitive) To convince a person to cease a drastic action or response, such as a suicide attempt or act of rage.
   • 2007, Lincoln Child, Deep Storm‎^[1]:

     Talk him down, the rule book went. Calm him, get him secured. Easier said than done. Crane had talked down a would-be jumper standing on a support cable of the George Washington Bridge.

   • (Can we date this quote?), CJ Raines, Shelby: A Great Love‎^[2]:

     And that guy that talked him down told us what happen^[sic]. It's kidnapping, attempted assault.

4. (transitive) To overcome by spoken argument.
5. (transitive, slang) To comfort someone experiencing a bad trip, to help them come down.
   • 1969, American Journal of Psychiatry, volume 125, number 4, page 154:

     They may then go to a hippie clinic crash pad to be "talked down."

Translations

negotiate

• French: marchander (fr)
• Polish: targować się (pl) impf

patronize

• French: prendre de haut (fr)
• Italian: degnarsi, trattare dall'alto in basso
• Polish: patrzeć z góry (pl) impf

See also

• talk down to

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “talk-down n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang