take down a notch - take team A down a notch

[redgiant]

This talented player 's switch to B team takes down A team a notch

Does "take down a notch" literally mean "down one level"? Can I use it in general, not specific, weakened situation? Like I just want to say A team is weakened after the soccer player jumps ship to B team , not exactly mean the team is lower one level or scale.

 

[bibliolept]

In the first example, "to be taken down a notch" does not refer to a specific level, just to the general idea of being humbled or figuratively reduced to a lower position.

I wouldn't use the phrase to refer to something that simply weakens or harms, such as a team losing a valuable player.

 

[tannen2004]

Generally "to take someone down a notch" refers to someone's ego, not their strength.

 

[Eigenfunction]

You might also like to look up "Take someone down a peg or two" a more common phrase with a very similar meaning.

 

[Aardvark01]

Other expressions you could use:

The team is diminished by the loss of its star player.

The loss of player X is a blow to the team's morale.

Morale in the team had been knocked back by the departure of player X.

or, to a lesser degree (a lesser player leaves):

the team goes forward after their minor setback.

 

[redgiant]

Let's say a guy is bragging about how convenient his iPhone is with the built-in voice-driven personal assistant software Siri. And another guy says "Well, there's nothing new about Siri. My Android phone has had this kind of app way before Siri was introduced."

In that case, does the iPhone guy get taken down a notch by the Android guy?

 

[Sparky Malarky]

Let's say a guy is bragging about how convenient his iPhone is with the built-in voice-driven personal assistant software Siri. And another guy says "Well, there's nothing new about Siri. My Android phone has had this kind of app way before Siri was introduced."

In that case, does the iPhone guy get taken down a notch by the Android guy?

Yes, good example.

 

[redgiant]

Thank you Sparky. The freedictionary gives the definition of "take the wind out of his sails." as " to challenge someone's boasting or arrogance.". Would you consider it a good alternative to "take down a notch" in this example?

The iPhone guy was bragging about how convenient his iPhone was with Siri until the Android guy showed him that Android had had Siri like capabilities before. That took the wind out of the iPhone guy's sails.