take someone down a peg
Meaning: To make an arrogant person more humble.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “Losing in the first round took the defending champion down a peg.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Recorded from the late 16th century as "take down a peg" or "bring down a peg." The pegs have been linked to ships' flags, to drinking vessels with peg markers and to musical tuning pegs, but none of these explanations is proven.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Rabattre le caquet à quelqu'un — literally: To beat down someone's cackle
More idioms — Daily Life
- you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy — People keep the habits and character of where they grew up.
- go to Canossa — To humble oneself and submit to an opponent.
- a captain of industry — A powerful business leader who runs a major company.
- the bigger they are, the harder they fall — The more powerful someone is, the worse their downfall.
- a day late and a dollar short — Too late and not enough to be useful.
- a whipping boy — Someone who is blamed or punished for the faults of others.
More English idioms
- the life of the party — A lively, fun person who makes a gathering enjoyable.
- kick against the pricks — To resist authority or fate in a way that only hurts oneself.
- hell for leather — As fast as possible.
- buy a pig in a poke — To buy something without examining it first.
- not a soul — Absolutely nobody.
- a Trojan horse — Something that seems harmless but hides a threat inside.
From our tongue twisters
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. — A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.
- She sells seashells by the seashore. — The definitive 's' versus 'sh' alternation — the tongue has to switch place of articulati…
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. — A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.