Word.ws English Dictionary

punches down

punches down is the third-person singular simple present indicative of punch down.

Meaning of punch down

Verb

punch down (third-person singular simple present punches down, present participle punching down, simple past and past participle punched down)

  1. (intransitive, slang) To attack or target a group that is weaker or of lower status than oneself.
    • The anti-vaxx movement punches down and punches hard. Its leaders tend to be men and women from wealthy backgrounds. […] They draw a large part of their audience from the poor, the poorly educated and ethnic minorities.2021 January 30, Nick Cohen, “Anti-vaxxers posing as victims has a history. Look at Andrew Wakefield”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 10 Mar 2023
    Antonyms:
    punch up
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see punch, down.

Questions about punches down

What is punches down the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Punches down is the third-person singular simple present indicative of punch down.

Words near punches down in the dictionary

  1. punchers
  2. punches
  3. punches above
  4. punches above one's weight
  5. punches below one's weight
  6. punches down
  7. punches in
  8. punches out
  9. punches someone's lights out
  10. punches someone's ticket
  11. punches the air

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: punches down (page history and authors); punch down (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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