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• build-down
  build-down

  noun

  a process for reducing armaments, especially the number of nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., by eliminating several older weapons for each new one that is deployed.
• build down
  build down

  Reduce, diminish, as in Owing to increased vigilance, traffic in narcotics is finally building down. This term, the antonym of build up, came into use about 1980 with regard to reducing the stockpile of nuclear weapons and soon was applied more widely.

build-down

American  

[bild-daun] / ˈbɪldˌdaʊn /

noun

1. a process for reducing armaments, especially the number of nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., by eliminating several older weapons for each new one that is deployed.

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build down Idioms  

1. Reduce, diminish, as in Owing to increased vigilance, traffic in narcotics is finally building down. This term, the antonym of build up, came into use about 1980 with regard to reducing the stockpile of nuclear weapons and soon was applied more widely.

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Etymology

Origin of build-down

First recorded in 1980–85; by analogy with buildup

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

build-down build down

If there is such a thing as the opposite to a buildup, the vice presidential debate last night had received a build-down.

From Salon ● Oct. 6, 2016

"If Ed Rowny came back and said double build-down won't fly, I wouldn't believe him," said Aspin.

From Time Magazine Archive

"We could offer to share our technology for stability and tie that to an arms build-down," says Robert McCrory, director of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester.

From Time Magazine Archive

Besides letting huge clouds of steam out of the overall economy, the military build-down will take a huge personal toll on displaced workers.

From Time Magazine Archive

When Reagan's chief arms-control negotiator, Edward Rowny, protested to Cohen that build-down would only complicate matters in Geneva, the Senator asked: "How about no MX?"

From Time Magazine Archive

City build forward once again, looking to build down the left hand side this time with Chloe Kelly and Leila Ouahabi.

From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2024

"We would shut the build down if we weren't meeting one of the targets" for quality, Closurdo said on the plant floor last week.

From Reuters ● May 1, 2023

“We made a commitment after 9/11 to stay down here. We made a commitment after Sandy destroyed our business to build down here. We’re just too heavily invested here.”

From New York Times ● Dec. 2, 2016

Now we'll go and see where the beavers used to build, down here where the salt water makes up into the outlet of the brook.

From Betty Leicester A Story For Girls by Sarah Orne Jewett

If we are to build up to the level of our best opportunities, we must build down to solid foundation on the sense of obligation.

From Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O by Thomas B. (Thomas Brackett) Reed

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