1. adj. Not operating. "The up escalator is down" is considered a
humorous thing to say (unless of course you were expecting to use
it), and "The elevator is down" always means "The elevator isn't
working" and never refers to what floor the elevator is on. With
respect to computers, this term has passed into the mainstream; the
extension to other kinds of machine is still confined to techies
(e.g. boiler mechanics may speak of a boiler being down).
2. go down vi. To stop functioning; usually said of the {system}. The
message from the {console} that every hacker hates to hear from the
operator is "System going down in 5 minutes".
3. take down, bring down vt. To deactivate purposely, usually for
repair work or {PM}. "I'm taking the system down to work on that bug
in the tape drive." Occasionally one hears the word down by itself
used as a verb in this vt. sense.
See {crash}; oppose {up}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {bounce message}{broken arrow}{crash}{dead}{frotzed}{hosed}{hung}{notwork}{nyetwork}{tanked}{up}]