"down for the count" meaning in English

See down for the count in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: en-au-down for the count.ogg
Etymology: The figurative senses are extended from the literal one. Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} down for the count (not comparable)
  1. (idiomatic) Decisively beaten; defeated; rendered irrelevant for the long term. Tags: idiomatic, not-comparable
    Sense id: en-down_for_the_count-en-adj-en:decisively_defeated
  2. (figurative) Soundly unconscious, either because asleep or because otherwise knocked out. Tags: figuratively, not-comparable Synonyms: out cold Hypernyms: out, unconscious, knock out
    Sense id: en-down_for_the_count-en-adj-en:soundly_unconscious Categories (other): English links with manual fragments, English entries with incorrect language header, English links with manual fragments, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 20 47 34 Disambiguation of English links with manual fragments: 8 73 19 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 19 48 33 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 19 49 32
  3. (of a boxer) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see down, for, the, count: lying upon the mat of a boxing ring while the referee counts the fighter out. Tags: not-comparable Related terms: count out [verb], countout [noun], lost to the world, saved by the bell
    Sense id: en-down_for_the_count-en-adj-en:literal Categories (other): Boxing Disambiguation of Boxing: 11 19 70

Alternative forms

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        "Decisively beaten; defeated; rendered irrelevant for the long term."
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        "(idiomatic) Decisively beaten; defeated; rendered irrelevant for the long term."
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        "(figurative) Soundly unconscious, either because asleep or because otherwise knocked out."
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        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see down, for, the, count: lying upon the mat of a boxing ring while the referee counts the fighter out."
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        "(of a boxer) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see down, for, the, count: lying upon the mat of a boxing ring while the referee counts the fighter out."
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              136
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          "beaten",
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        "(idiomatic) Decisively beaten; defeated; rendered irrelevant for the long term."
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          "type": "example"
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      "glosses": [
        "Soundly unconscious, either because asleep or because otherwise knocked out."
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          "word": "unconscious"
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        {
          "word": "knock out"
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        "(figurative) Soundly unconscious, either because asleep or because otherwise knocked out."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:soundly unconscious"
      ],
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          "text": "Liston was down for the count more than once before rising up to regain command of the fight.",
          "type": "example"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see down, for, the, count: lying upon the mat of a boxing ring while the referee counts the fighter out."
      ],
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        [
          "down",
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          "for#English"
        ],
        [
          "the",
          "the#English"
        ],
        [
          "count",
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          "lying",
          "lie#Verb"
        ],
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          "counts the fighter out",
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        ]
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        "(of a boxer) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see down, for, the, count: lying upon the mat of a boxing ring while the referee counts the fighter out."
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  "word": "down for the count"
}

Download raw JSONL data for down for the count meaning in English (4.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-04-01 using wiktextract (7de0cf9 and 9452535). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.