Thread: show down

There is a noun 'showdown' which means facing up cards (in a card games) or a final confrontation that ends an argument decisively (according to the dictionaries).

My question is IS THERE a VERB 'TO SHOW DOWN'?????

Not that I know of.

I think it is only a noun.

You can say "to show someone up" but it doesn't have exactly the same meaning. Example: "You think you're good at tennis, but I'm going to show you up!"

thanks Deb, interesting meaning.

You can also say "to show off" - but it has a different meaning, similar to bragging, or "to toot your own horn"... The meaning is usually negative, but there are a few exceptions.

Examples - negative:

Anna always overdresses for the occasion. She is such a show-off!
Look at John jumping from the highest diving board again. What a show-off!

Examples - Not negative:

Peter bought a new lawnmower and he wants to show it off.
Julie bought a new dress to go with her shoes so that she could show them off.

Alex, the only other thoughts I have on this would be to use it like:

We are heading for a showdown tonight.

We are going to have a showdown in congress over this budget.

Is that the way you were thinking of how to use it?

I would agree with rockzmom -- we would use the noun "showdown" (in the sense of "a final, decisive confrontation") with verbs such as "to have" or "to be headed for" or "to expect," etc. And usually it makes me think of вестерны, or parodies of movie-Westerns, like this:



SHOOT THE FROG!

Yep, "showdown" does remind me of western movies. Like "Showdown at the OK-Corral"..

On the other hand, we also have another western word - "hoedown" which refers to western dancing or "square dancing." And then there is "throwdown" which rhymes with hoedown and showdown and has to do with a competition between rappers or breakdancers.

Miley Cyrus, apparently, had a hoedown throwdown which caused quite a showdown!

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Is that the way you were thinking of how to use it?

My question was whether there is a verb 'to show down'. It seems there is only a noun. Thanks for your examples.

The verb "show down" exists. It means "to beat, to overtake somebody". For example,

Mike showed everybody down at the race.
Mike showed Peter down to the finish.

Show up - arrive
Show down - depart