write down

English

Verb

write down (third-person singular simple present writes down, present participle writing down, simple past wrote down, past participle written down)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see write,‎ down.

   I can't write down in the basement; it's cold there and my fingers cramp and get stiff.

2. (transitive) To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something.

   Synonyms: write up, record, transcribe, document, log, inscripturate

3. (transitive, intransitive) To write (something) in a simple or condescending style.

   Coordinate terms: dumb down, talk down, talk down to

   • 2011, Ada Leverson, Love's Shadow: The Bloomsbury Group‎:

     Good heavens, I can't write down to the level of the vulgar public!

4. (transitive, accounting) To make a downward adjustment in the value of an asset.

   Synonym: devalue

   Antonym: write up

5. (transitive) To condemn in writing; to document the faults, offenses, or wrongdoing of.
   • 1951 December, Michael Robbins, “John Francis's "History of the English Railway"”, in Railway Magazine, page 800:

     By 1859, D. Morier Evans was exhibiting [George] Hudson as the principal character in his rogues' gallery entitled "Facts, Failures and Frauds"; and at the hands of modern economic historians he has been written down as a common swindler.

   Synonym: write up

   See also: cite

Usage notes

• As with many pairs of phrasal verbs that contain antonymic particles (such as up and down), write down and write up can nonetheless function as synonyms for some senses.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Winterowd