"down tools" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "downs tools",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "downing tools",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "downed tools",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "downed tools",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "down tools (third-person singular simple present downs tools, present participle downing tools, simple past and past participle downed tools)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2020 January 2, Conrad Landin, “Strife and strikes in post-war Britain”, in Rail, page 51",
          "text": "But when railway workers downed tools almost a year later, on September 26 1919, Britain was in many ways still a country at war.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 January 22, Heather Stewart, “First industrial action at Amazon UK hopes to strike at firm’s union hostility”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "In Coventry, 300 GMB members plan to down tools over long hours, bad management and a 50p-an-hour pay rise[.]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To stop work, especially when taking industrial action."
      ],
      "id": "en-down_tools-en-verb-QogJ5xfA",
      "links": [
        [
          "stop",
          "stop"
        ],
        [
          "work",
          "work"
        ],
        [
          "industrial action",
          "industrial action"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, UK, idiomatic) To stop work, especially when taking industrial action."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "down tools"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "downs tools",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "downing tools",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "downed tools",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "downed tools",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "down tools (third-person singular simple present downs tools, present participle downing tools, simple past and past participle downed tools)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2020 January 2, Conrad Landin, “Strife and strikes in post-war Britain”, in Rail, page 51",
          "text": "But when railway workers downed tools almost a year later, on September 26 1919, Britain was in many ways still a country at war.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 January 22, Heather Stewart, “First industrial action at Amazon UK hopes to strike at firm’s union hostility”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "In Coventry, 300 GMB members plan to down tools over long hours, bad management and a 50p-an-hour pay rise[.]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To stop work, especially when taking industrial action."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "stop",
          "stop"
        ],
        [
          "work",
          "work"
        ],
        [
          "industrial action",
          "industrial action"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, UK, idiomatic) To stop work, especially when taking industrial action."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "down tools"
}