Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US black) to depress.

1933		Bessie Smith ‘Gimme a Pigfoot’ 🎵 Give the fiddle player a drink because he’s bringin’ me down.
1938		Fats Waller ‘Don’t Try You Jive On Me’ 🎵 All night long you hang around, / Can’t you see you bring me down?
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 29: But, jack, that’s where the play brings me down.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 28: If you really want to bring a man down, light a cigarette in the middle of intercourse.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 97: What was he, this one? Something sent to bring me down?
1971		M. Novotny Kings Road 109: Don’t bring me down, darling [...] I’m high and happy, let’s groove.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 100: He would spend more time here if these bitches didn’t bring him down so bad.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 3: Ah wis [...] tryin no tae notice the cunt. He wis bringing me doon.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 443: Shill come round ere, bring us all fuckin down.
2010		K. Richards Life 191: Having [...] to learn to play a song Mick and I had written would bring [Brian] down.

2. to bring the experience of a drug to an (abrupt) end.

1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 249: Coffee’ll straighten you out. It’ll bring you right down.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 31: You brought me down! You rotten freaks, you brought me down!
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 340: bring down: 1. To use medical/pharmacological methods to return a drug user to a more normal state, e.g., by means of major tranquilizers, B vitamins, or the like.
1996		D. Healy Bend for Home 97: It’s Mandrax. It will bring you down, said his friend.

3. to calm someone down.

1989

T. Blacker Fixx 18: They prescribed pink pills to pick him up, blue pills to bring him down.