transitive verb
1. : to overcome or silence by superior argument or by loud and insistent talking
burst out with attacks on the play … but they had their facts wrong and were talked down — Elmer Davis
tries to argue back but his opponent vociferously talks him down
2. : to disparage or belittle by talking
endeavored to interrupt and then to talk down all hymns — Haldane Macfall
in boosting his own products he never talks theirs down
3. : to bring an airplane in for a blind landing by means of instructions radioed to the pilot by a ground observer who watches the approach of the craft by means of radar
the ground control radar operator talked the … pilot down the landing approach to the runway — A.M.Johnston
intransitive verb
: to speak in a condescending or oversimplified fashion with the false assumption that the listener is altogether ignorant of the matter involved — usually used with to
tired of being talked down to and are rightly insulted by being treated most of the time as … morons — John Mason Brown
in teaching him he never talked down to him, indulged or flattered him; he treated him as a man and an equal — Elizabeth Goudge