🇨🇳Chinese Source WordCode: ZH

压制傲气

Pronunciation / Transliteration: yāzhì àoqì

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Take down a peg/teɪk daʊn ə pɛɡ/
verb phraseCEFR C1 (Advanced)Top #14200 frequency
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🇨🇳 Example Sentence in Chinese:

"这次失利好好压制了一下他的傲气。"

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As verb phrase
  1. 1

    To humble someone; to cause someone to lose their conceit or overinflated sense of self-importance.

    "His arrogant attitude during the meeting made everyone want to take him down a peg."
  2. 2

    To lower someone's social standing or status through constructive criticism or defeat.

    "Losing the chess tournament really took her down a peg or two."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

This idiom dates back to the 17th century, originating from the nautical practice of lowering ship flags or the mechanical adjustment of pegs on musical instruments like lutes to lower the pitch. Over time, lowering a peg came to metaphorically signify reducing someone's pride, arrogance, or elevated status.

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