Talk:quieten down

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quieten down

= [[quieten]] [[down]]. Synonym for quiet down. Note also that transitive use "to quiten (something/someone) down" is not defined. DCDuring TALK 18:06, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Huh? What sense of down is this? No, this seems very much like a phrasal verb to me, which we keep. I'm curious to know what Algrif thinks, though.—msh210℠ 22:36, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

There are two senses from MWOnline not shown at down#Adverb that might apply:

1. to or toward a lesser level, degree, or rate (3rd sense of 9)
2. to a state of less activity (7th; less likely).

MWOnline has 17 senses, subsenses, and sub-subsenses of down as adverb. We have 5. DCDuring TALK 23:48, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Cambridge dictionaries mark this as a phrasal verb, as do the Collins. They all state that the meaning is equivalent to quieten and that the preferred US usage is quiet and quiet down. I have added to the entry, even though it is still "rfd", BTW.
Phrasal verbs with down are difficult to determine, as are phrasals with up. They often have the same meaning (as this example under discussion), but there is a subtle distinction, which makes the teacher in class shout "Quienten down at once!" rather than "Quienten at once!", for instance. It's a bit like why we say "Fill her up", rather than "Fill her", at the petrol station. Possibly it's "degree", the idea of "completeness". -- ALGRIF talk 11:21, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Keep, phrasal verb. --Duncan 20:21, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

• Kept per consensus. Is in other dictionaries, and has a few different meanings. --Jackofclubs 18:40, 23 May 2009 (UTC)