dumb down

Verb

dumb down (third-person singular simple present dumbs down, present participle dumbing down, simple past and past participle dumbed down)

1. (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.

   Synonyms:

   oversimplify, simplify, put in layman's terms

2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To become simpler in expression or content; to become unacceptably simplistic.
   • Television has really dumbed down over the past ten years.
   • 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...1995, Carl Sagan, “Science and Hope”, in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1st edition, New York: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 25–26