let down

Formslets down, letting down, let down

1. 1
   disappoint someonephrasal verbidiomatictransitive

   To disappoint someone, or to fail or betray them when they were counting on you.

   The airline has let down thousands of travelers with its last-minute cancellations.

   I promised to help her move, and I'm not going to let her down.

   Similardisappoint, fail, betray

   Note

   Pronouns go in the middle: let me down, let him down, never let down me. A noun object can sit on either side (let passengers down, let down thousands of travelers), and the past participle turns into an adjective for the feeling itself: she felt let down. What disappoints you is a let-down, written with a hyphen.

2. 2
   disappointing thingnoun · let-downcountable

   A disappointment, or an anticlimax that falls short of what was expected.

   After weeks of buildup, the final episode was a let-down for most fans.

   The hotel's famous view turned out to be something of a let-down.

   Similardisappointment, anticlimax, comedown

   Note

   Written as a noun it takes a hyphen or closes up as letdown; as two words it is the verb, to disappoint someone. It is often softened or stressed with quite a or something of a: the show was quite a let-down. It can also go without an article, as an amount of disappointment, as when Rebecca Rose in FT Weekend (2023) wonders how much let-down is baked into our expectations.

3. 3
   lowerphrasal verbtransitive

   To allow something to move downward, or to lower it.

   The crew let down the lifeboat into the choppy water.

   Climbers on the ledge let a rope down to the injured hiker.

   Similarlower

   Oppositeraise, hoist

4. 4
   make clothes longerphrasal verbtransitive

   To make a piece of clothing longer by undoing the hem and sewing it again lower down.

   The tailor let down both sleeves of the jacket by half an inch.

   There was enough fabric in the hem to let the dress down for another year.

   Similarlengthen

   Oppositeshorten

5. 5
   milk flownoun · let-downcountable or uncountable

   The release of milk from the breast or udder, triggered by nerves and hormones, in nursing mothers or dairy cows.

   Stress can delay let-down, so lactation consultants encourage mothers to relax before feeding.

   Dairy farmers wash and massage the udder before milking to stimulate let-down.

   Note

   Here the word belongs to lactation, and the hormone behind it is oxytocin. The reflex is learned as well as triggered: suckling sets it off, so herders let a calf suckle before milking, and in time a mother's let-down can come when she merely thinks of her baby. A strong one can catch a baby off guard and make it sputter.

6. 6
   ease offphrasal verbintransitive

   To ease off and put in less effort than before.

   The coach warned his players not to let down after their early lead.

   Some students let down once midterms are over, and their grades start to slip.

   Similarslacken, relax, coast

7. 7
   thin (cooking)phrasal verbtransitive

   To thin a sauce, soup, or similar mixture by adding liquid to it.

   Let the risotto down with a ladle of hot stock just before serving.

   She let down the mayonnaise with a little lemon juice so it would drizzle.

   Similarthin, dilute, loosen

   Oppositethicken

   Note

   Recipes use it with the thinning liquid named after with: let it down with a little stock, with pasta water, with a dash of milk or pickling liquor. It works the opposite way from reducing a sauce, which thickens it by boiling off water, so letting down is the cook's fix when a sauce has thickened too far.

8. 8
   soften metalphrasal verbtransitive

   To soften a hardened metal object, such as a tool or blade, in the course of tempering it.

   After hardening the springs, the smith let them down to a blue temper.

   Knife makers let down the edge only slightly, keeping it hard enough to hold its sharpness.

   Similartemper, soften

   Oppositeharden

9. 9
   plane descentnoun · let-downcountable or uncountable

   Permission for an aircraft to descend through cloud to clear air below, or the process of giving that permission.

   With the airfield hidden under cloud, the crew requested a radar let-down from approach control.

   Controllers handled the let-downs one aircraft at a time while the weather stayed poor.

   Note

   Pilots and controllers use it for a managed descent, not a simple drop: the aircraft is cleared down in stages and guided until it breaks out of cloud into air clear enough to fly by sight. A radar let-down is one guided from the ground by radar, and the word covers both the clearance and the descent flown under it.

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