Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) anything depressing, either a person or a circumstance.

1938		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 23 July 11/1: The Bernie Wagner new suit creations are killer dillers.There’s not a bringdown in a whole cartload of ’em.
1944		E. Wilson 4 Dec. [synd. col.] ‘Happy Boy’ is a current Hollywoodism [...] But don’t overdo it: If you do you’re a bring-down.
1944		Cab Calloway New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 253: bring down: [...] (n.), something depressing. Ex., ‘That’s a bring down.’.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 19: This was a bringdown.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 29: If you come right to the point, they say you are a ‘bring down’.
1961		L. Block Diet of Treacle (2008) 101: Judy’s parties can be a bring-down if there’s nothing to ease the pain.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 168: I’m really getting to be a bringdown.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 61: Hey baby, dont be a bring down, ah feels too good.
1989		(con. 1930s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 241: No one dared to speak while the record was playing. I remember that, if someone spoke, the word was, ‘He’s a bring-down’.
1993		G. Disher Deathdeal [ebook] They knew all about her and what had happened. ‘What a bringdown,’ someone called.

2. attrib. use of sense 1, depressing.

1943		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 4 Sept. 20/1: Most of the boys [...] are surprised at Bing Crosby for playing such a bring-down role in ‘Dixie’.
1967		Oz 7 28/2: Ideally, the drop-out society shouldn’t have to think about such bring-down matters [as conventional society].
1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 53: Cutting outa all the bringdown brownstones and takin’ to the ragged mountains of the Isles to live in caves.

3. (drugs) as ext. of sense 1, any social forces militating against the drug user’s desire to attain nirvana.

1969

R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 50: bring down [...] (3) the complex of social forces antithetical to an ecstatic state of mind, specifically, the narcotics laws which harass the drug user in his search for such ecstasy. ‘First Manifesto to End the Bringdown.’ Title of an Atlantic Monthly article by Allen Ginsberg in favour of legalizing marijuana (1966).