down for the count
English
Etymology
A metaphorical reference to the sport of boxing, where a contestant loses a match if knocked down and unable to get up before a referee has counted to ten.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Adjective
down for the count (not comparable)
- (idiomatic) Decisively beaten; defeated; rendered irrelevant for the long term.
- 1912, Harold MacGrath, chapter 7, in The Place of Honeymoons:
- “But what puts me down for the count is the action of the fellow. Never showed up; just made her miss two performances.”
- 1991 November 4, Allan Kozinn, “Despite Odds, Many of Them, A Bedeviled Orchestra Persists”, in The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331:
- But every time the music world thought it was down for the count, the orchestra has managed to rise again.
- 2002 March 11, “Veni, Vidi, Gucci”, in Time, archived from the original on 2013-05-11:
- So, while Europe is still groggy and the U.S. is just starting to show signs of a pulse (and Japan of course is still down for the count), little Korea will grow anywhere from 3.2% to 6% this year.
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- (figuratively) Unconscious or sound asleep.
See also
- lost to the world
- saved by the bell