man down

Verb

man down (third-person singular simple present mans down, present participle manning down, simple past and past participle manned down)

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To lose courage or cause to lose courage.
   • Ministers and a good many of their supporters worked in relays, and had so manned down the feeble and numerically small Opposition till we had not strength nor mental energy enough to resist.1901, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, volume 116, Wellington: Government Printer, →OCLC, page 171, column 2
   • A famous champion, he; super-expert in the art of "manning down" his opponent, and sometimes in the heat of battle glowing with such an ardour of excitement that he would make wide jumps, quite against every rule, and sweep off pieces wholesale.1924, George Allan England, The White Wilderness: A Story of the Great Newfoundland Seal-hunt, of Artic Floes, of Perils and Adventures Manifold, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Co., →OCLC, page...
2. (transitive) To reduce in manpower.
   • These men have gotten word that the fort we left, Ridgeway, is manning down. So we have no worries about that.2011, Denise A. Bates, House of Bull: Book Three, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 392
3. (transitive) To train (a raptor or other type of bird) to become accustomed to the presence of people; to man.
   • Eyasses begin a transition period in the late summer as their falconry training begins. This critical period involves manning down the raptor, slowly lowering the body weight, and controlled flight training.1995, Main Conference Proceedings: Annual Conference & Expo, August 28 – September 2, 1995, Orlando, Fla.: Association of Avian Veterinarians, →OCLC, page 176
   • When taken directly from the chamber, initially Mrs Woods [a sparrowhawk] showed a high level of fear but when manned down, she went on to show no aggression whatsoever.2014, Ben Crane, Sparrowhawks: A Falconer's Guide, Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire: The Crowood Press, →ISBN