means A takedown is the act of bringing an opponent down to the ground in combat or wrestling, or by extension, a sharp written or spoken demolition of someone's argument or reputation.

from A plain compound of "take" and "down," both rooted in Old English — "tacan" (to grasp, seize, borrowed from Old Norse "taka") and "dun" (down, originally meaning a hill, hence "off the hill," hence downward). The literal grappling sense comes straight from wrestling and combat, where you take your opponent down. The figurative "takedown" — a withering critique that flattens its target — is a modern English extension, leaning on the same image of dropping someone where they stand.