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calm down

phrasal verb

Formscalms down, calming down, calmed down

2 meanings of calm down

Practice

  1. 1
    phrasal verbintransitive
    To become less excited, angry, or intense.

    Wait until you calm down before you reply to that email.

    Things calmed down at the office once the deadline had passed.

    Similarsettle, relax, subside

  2. 2
    phrasal verbtransitive
    To make someone or something less excited, angry, or intense.

    Police officers moved in to calm down the crowd outside the stadium.

    The coach called a time-out and calmed down her nervous players.

    Similarcalm, soothe, pacify, settle, quiet

    Oppositeexcite, agitate, provoke

    Note

    Here someone does the calming to someone else, and the object can sit in the middle of the phrase or at its end: calm the baby down, calm down the baby. A pronoun has to go in the middle, so it is calm her down, never calm down her. Without an object, the phrase falls back to the "become calm" meaning.

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