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Edwin Ashworth
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Longman gives the appropriate sense of what it labels the phrasal verb usage here:

come down phrasal verb

...

3 to fall to the ground

  • A lot of trees came down in the storm.
  • We were still out in the fields when the rain started coming down.

I'd say that there is enough cohesion between 'come' and 'down' here to justify its being considered a multi-word verb:

  • The trees came down in the storm.
  • The trees fell [to the ground] in the storm.

In spite of the cohesion, it is possible to insert ing-forms between 'come' and 'down' to describe the manner and/or degree of the falling:

  • The cans came crashing down.
  • Jack and Jill came tumbling down.
  • The rain came bucketing down.
  • The ash keys came spiralling down.

Whether or not one considers come V-ing down as cohesive enough to also be considered multi-word verbs (of a different class) is open to debate. Certainly

  • The ash keys spiralled to the ground (etc)

is available for

  • The ash keys came spiralling down [to the ground].

The grammar is fairly idiosyncratic ('went V-ing up' is unusual), but these expressions are idiomatic (commonly used and accepted), so they arguably qualify as idioms.

Edwin Ashworth
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