Put Someone Down

If you “put someone down” it means that you say something mean or unkind to them for the purpose of hurting them. The phrase to “put someone down” is usually used when someone is intentionally trying to hurt another person’s feelings.

For example, if someone says, “Do you think my website looks good?”

and you answer, “Well, to be honest, I don’t think the design is very good. Maybe it would be a good idea for you to hire a professional designer” That is NOT “putting them down“.

That answer might hurt the other person’s feelings and it was probably not what the person wanted to hear, BUT, this is NOT putting someone down because the purpose of the answer was to help.

If the same person just said, “Hey, your website looks really ugly” for no reason at all, that WOULD be putting the other person down because the purpose was to hurt, not help.

So, putting someone down is NEVER nice. It’s saying something unkind AND doing it for the purpose of hurting someone’s feelings.

Another example: “I don’t understand why Brian is so mean to people. I think he only feels good when he puts other people down“