dumb down
English
editPronunciation
editAudio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
editdumb down (third-person singular simple present dumbs down, present participle dumbing down, simple past and past participle dumbed down)
- (idiomatic, transitive) To convey some subject matter in simple terms, avoiding technical or academic language, especially in a way that is considered condescending.
- The public won't understand this concept. We need to dumb down our explanation of it.
- (idiomatic, intransitive) To become simpler in expression or content; to become unacceptably simplistic.
- Television has really dumbed down over the past ten years.
- 1995, Carl Sagan, “Science and Hope”, in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark[1], 1st edition, New York: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 25–26:
- The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudo-science and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.
- 2021 December 29, Paul Stephen, “Rail's accident investigators”, in RAIL, number 947, pages 32–33:
- As the reports are written for both the industry and general public, inspectors are required to use accessible language that is free from jargon but without 'dumbing down'.
Synonyms
edit- (convey subject matter in simple terms): oversimplify, simplify, put in layman's terms
Translations
editto convey some subject matter in simple terms
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to become unacceptably simplicistic
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See also
editReferences
edit- “dumb down”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.