Brewer's: Come Down a Peg

Humiliated; lowered in dignity, tone, demands, etc.

“Well, he has come down a peg or two, and he don't like it.” —Haggard.

A come down. Loss of prestige or position.

“ `Now I'm your worship's washerwoman.' The dignitary coloured, and said that `this was rather a come down.' ” —Reade.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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