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Showing results for downscale. Search instead for downscaled.
Synonyms

downscale

American  
[daun-skayl] / ˈdaʊnˌskeɪl /

adjective

  1. located at, moving toward, or of or for the middle or lower end of a social or economic scale.

    The discount store caters mainly to downscale customers.

  2. plain, practical, or inexpensive; not luxurious.

    downscale clothing.


verb (used with object)

downscaled, downscaling
  1. downsize.

  2. to make less luxurious or expensive.

downscale British  

adjective

  1. of or for the lower end of an economic or social scale; down-market

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (tr) to reduce the scale of

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of downscale

down 1 + scale 3


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

The Atlantic describes the Brightline train as a luxurious ride for high rollers but paints a downscale cast to those who are run over by it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025

“We had to actually downscale to shooting on a Blackmagic, just a little tiny camera, because we didn’t have money for so many years to keep it going.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2025

The red-walled first gallery emphasizes naturalistic black-and-white images of everyday life, mostly downscale.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 8, 2023

Natalie's former care agency, Silverbell, told the BBC it was "mortified" by her situation but said it had "no alternative but to downscale our operation".

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2022

Her voice was the downscale wail of an oboe.

From Just Around the Corner Romance en casserole by Fannie Hurst

The initial news flashes said that 17 people were killed, but that toll was downscaled significantly.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

The shrinking of device dimensionality, together with the downscaled junction region, render the device fast and energy efficient, resulting in high-performance digital and analog circuits.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2024

If the media company is going away — if it’s being downscaled to a production unit — there’s no need for a network president.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 2023

Because of this, they've downscaled their expectations of what politics can do.

From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2022

I’ve streamlined the recipe using a food processor and downscaled it with chicken.

From New York Times ● May 2, 2022

David Price owns Southampton-based DCP Haulage, and said if things did not improve he would have to look at "parking up trucks" or "actually downscaling".

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

Why waste the money to only end up downscaling all of the extra work and not release the series in the Blu-ray format?

From Washington Times ● Nov. 25, 2022

It is actually where DeSo and Boeing take their simulations and interconnect them, with Nvidia’s machine learning upscaling, downscaling, translating, and then operating that simulation.

From The Verge ● Jul. 19, 2022

She had tried everything to keep Tilth operating — selling granola, offering online classes with ingredient kits, running wine specials and downscaling the menu to feature comfort food like mac and cheese.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2021

And last month, officials announced that they were downscaling from the arena to a much smaller convention center nearby.

From Fox News ● Jul. 17, 2020

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