come down to us

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

come down to us (third-person singular simple present comes down to us, present participle coming down to us, simple past came down to us, past participle come down to us)

1. (idiomatic) To survive to the present day; to be extant in some form.
   • 1858, Charles Henry Cooper, Thompson Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses, volume 1, page 138:

     It is somewhat remarkable that none of bishop Ridley’s sermons have come down to us.

   • 2002, Alexander J. Morin, editor, Classical Music: The Listener's Companion, page 638:

     There is some confusion about this work since the original has disappeared, and scholars have assumed that what has come down to us is not by Mozart.

   • 2003, Vivien Law, The History of Linguistics in Europe: From Plato to 1600, page 170:

     As you’ll have noticed, a large number of pre-Renaissance writings on language have come down to us without any indication of their author’s name, or with a false one attached.