live down
verb1
Informal To live so as to subdue or refute.
- to live down slander
- Local opinion held Mr. Underwood to be an intense, profane little man, whose father in a fey fit of humor christened Braxton Bragg, a name Mr. Underwood had done his best to live down.1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:
2
Idiomatic, In the negative To cause others to forget about something embarrassing that happened to oneself.
- I'll never be able to live down that time my pants fell down at the school dance.