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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

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

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

"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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Furthermore, in October 1983, we incorporated build-down into the U.S. approach and offered to explore trade-offs between the areas of U.S. and Soviet advantage.

From Time Magazine Archive