bring someone down—
1. (also: bring someone to the ground) cause a person to come down or fall:
- In American football, you have to try to bring down your opponent.
2. (also: bring someone to the ground) defeat an enemy or an opponent:
- Truman wanted to bring down his rival in the next election and succeeded.
3. (also: bring someone down to earth) make a person return to reality (face unpleasant truth, etc.):
- This bad news brought me down quickly.
bring someone down a peg —(also: bring someone down a peg or two) make smb. feel less important; snub or humiliate a person:
- Frederick has too high an opinion of himself; it’s time we brought him down a peg.
See also: get someone down / take someone down.