down / downwards / below / lower / later / next (week etc) / second (of two parts) / to decline / to go down / to arrive at (a decision, conclusion etc) / measure word to show the frequency of an action

= + : Mnemonic symbol: from the up/down logic, and a little bit the shape of the character, a ladder.

Xi Shi (xi) is on a retreat in the ashram. Using a voodoo staff (卜), she divined that next (下) week she'll have to play the flute (一) sixteen hours per day. Because she hates playing the flute, she climbs over the ashram's bathroom (a4) wall using a ladder (下) to escape.

下 character breakdown

one / single / a (article) / as soon as / entire; whole; all; throughout / "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1) / also pr. [yao1] for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit

Maud Younger (y) forgot her keys to the space station (Ø1), all she brought outside was her flute (一). She has no choice but to crash the door with the giant flute.
surname Bu
(bound form) to divine / to forecast or estimate / (of a place to live etc) to choose

= + : Mnemonic symbol from "to divine" and the shape of the character: a voodoo staff.

Bruno Bear (bu-) tries to divine (卜) the future in the space station's living room (Ø3). He places a petal (丶) in the middle of the room as an offering and starts a magic ritual with his voodoo staff (卜). The staff transforms the petal into a dinosaur bone (丨). Bruno divines that the staff was trying to tell him that all things are mortal and must come to an end.
see 蘿蔔|萝卜[luo2 bo5]

Characters with 下 as component

to be (followed by substantives only) / correct; right; true / (respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well / (adverb for emphatic assertion)

= + : Mnemonic symbol: a skull, from "to be or not to be".

Sherlock Holmes (sh) starts his day in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) with a mug of coffee (旦). Holding a skull (mnemonic symbol for 是) in his hands, he asks himself "to be, or not to be" (是). He wonders if he can make the skull come back to life using lots of coffee, and injects coffee from his mug into the skull using a syringe (龰).

= + + : Mnemonic symbol: a skull, from "to be or not to be".

Sherlock Holmes (sh) watches the Neanderthal Man (人) trying to climb to the sun (日) on a ladder (下) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4). Sherlock is afraid that he'll open the window, so he puts on a big skull (是) and scares him off.
variant of 是[shi4] / (used in given names)
(literary) to rain / (of rain, snow etc) to fall / to precipitate / to wet
rain / CL:陣|阵[zhen4],場|场[chang2]

= + + : It is raining inside of the space station, and because of zero gravity, it is raining in every direction. Yu the Great can't just hide under a ladder covered with petal leaves, she also has to tug herself in a few maps.
variant of 丐[gai4]

= + : Mnemonic symbol: a beggar from ancient Egypt. The beggar from ancient Egypt (匃) found work as an elephant (勹) rider. He rides his elephant through the airplane's bathroom (ai4) while the elephant carries a sarcophagus (亾) with his trunk. He doesn't know that Guy Fawkes (g) secretly sneaked into the sarcophagus to hitch a ride.
to set / to fix / to determine / to decide / to order

= + + : "to fix": duct tape. Somebody wanted to tease Dorothy Gale and taped a graduation cap to her head. Neanderthal Man tries to help her by levering the cap off with a ladder in the engine's bathroom.
to frighten / to scare

= + : Marie Curie (xi) climbed a ladder (下) to reach a mandarin (口) which is stored on a very high shelf in the ashram's bathroom (a4), but half way up she remembers that she is terribly afraid of heights and is scared to death (吓).
to scare / to intimidate / to threaten / (interjection showing disapproval) tut-tut / (interjection showing astonishment)

= + : Hamlet (h) is standing on top of a ladder (下) and is threatening (吓) to jump down on the very last mandarin (口) in the elevator's bathroom (e4) should his demands not be fulfilled.
see 蝦蟆|虾蟆[ha2 ma5]
used in 蝦蟆|虾蟆[ha2 ma5]
shrimp / prawn
to beg for alms / beggar

= + : Guy Fawkes (g) finds a beggar (丐) in the airplane's bathroom (ai4). To attract more attention the beggar is begging for alms (丐) while balancing on the top of a ladder (下). Guy Fawkes throws him a coin, but promptly the beggar is hit by a lightning bolt (㇉) because of his high elevation and the metal coin in his hand.
variant of 丐[gai4]
nervous

Words with 下

(used after a verb) give it a go / to do (sth for a bit to give it a try) / one time / once / in a while / all of a sudden / all at once
in a fit of pique / in a fury
to compete against / to measure oneself against / to go head to head (see who is best)
at sixes and sevens / perturbed state of mind / in a mess
three, set five remove two (abacus rule) / efficiently / quickly and easily
quickly and effortlessly (idiom)
Tales from 5000 Years of Chinese History in three volumes by Cao Yuzhang 曹餘章|曹余章[Cao2 Yu2 zhang1]
to raise and lower one's hand (idiom); to signal as conspiratorial hint / fig. conspiring to defraud
erhua variant of 一下[yi1 xia4]

Sentences with 下

zhè
pù
bù
xià
miàn
zhí
to̅ng
do̅ng
hǎi
lóng
go̅ng