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Reader question: Please explain “live it down” in this passage, a match report on England’s loss to Iceland in Euro 2016 soccer championship (England humiliated as Iceland knock them out of Euro 2016, TheGuardian.com, June 27, 2016): By that stage Hodgson had brought on Jamie Vardy in place of Sterling. Jack Wilshere had already come on at half-time, replacing Eric Dier, and Marcus Rashford was introduced in the 85th minute. What a statistic it is that Rashford completed more dribbles – three – in that time than any other England player throughout the match. Hodgson had taken off Rooney when it surely made better sense to remove a defender. None of it worked and England will never live it down. My comments: “It” refers to England’s 2-1 loss to Iceland plus all the humiliation, shock and embarrassment that came with it. “England will never LIVE IT DOWN” literally means the English team will never LIVE to see IT quite DOWN. In other words, this defeat will live in infamy – like Pearl Harbor – forever on. Time heals and we think perhaps over time, the backlash from fans will die down, like the noise of traffic on the street here will eventually die down – sometimes after midnight – but in this case, the humiliation and embarrassment will perhaps live on forever. If not forever, then something close to that long. And perhaps not quite like Pearl Harbor, either, but you get the point, such is the magnitude of England’s loss to Iceland, of all countries, with a population of 300,000. In comparison, the city of Beijing has a population of 20 million. | 
