lie down

verb, noun — 6 senses

lie down

verbalso spelled lie-down
1

To assume a horizontal position.

  • Lie down on the bed until you feel better.
2

Imperative A standard command to a herding dog to assume this position, owing to its effect on the herd's movement.

3

To be lazy or remiss.

  • He never got promoted because he was always lying down on the job.
  • They may have finished 11 points behind West Ham and lost both league games, conceding eight goals, but the Tangerine dream remains alive. Holloway said: “We won’t get a bigger test than West Ham but we’ve got one chance. If you’d asked me last summer when I lost all those players I’d have said this was a dead duck, but we don’t lie down at this club.”2012 May 9, John Percy, “Birmingham City 2 Blackpool 2 (2-3 on agg): match report”, in the Telegraph:
4

To submit passively.

  • I'm not going to lie down and take this!
5

Euphemistic, With 'with' To have sexual intercourse (with).

Derived terms
lie-down, liedown, lie down on the job, take lying down
Related terms
go to bed, lay down

lie-down

noun

Etymology Deverbal from lie down.

1

Commonwealth, English, Especially A short period of rest while lying.

  • have a lie-down; have a little lie-down; have a wee lie-down
  • After a long morning working, he decided to have a little lie-down before cooking lunch.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for lie down and lie-down.