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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-doun] / 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

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

An equitable build-down would probably require "variable ratios" designed to bring the U.S. and Soviet forces into rough balance.

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

The build-down, insisted Mondale, was "totally at odds" with the freeze.

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

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 Jewett, Sarah Orne

If the desire is to reinforce, to build down, the extrinsic muscles of the throat must relax, and the throat must expand.

From The Renaissance of the Vocal Art by Myer, Edmund