downsize
Americanverb (used with object)
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downsizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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downsized,
past participle, past
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downsizing
present participle
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to design or manufacture a smaller version or type of.
The automotive industry downsized its cars for improved fuel economy.
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to reduce in size or number; cut back.
Many small businesses are forced to downsize their workforce during a slow economy.
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to dismiss (an employee); lay off or fire.
After I was downsized from my marketing position, I took to substitute teaching to make a little money.
verb (used without object)
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downsizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
downsized,
past participle, past
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downsizing
present participle
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to become smaller in size or number.
The military is downsizing— reducing overseas deployments—and as a result is spending less on supplies.
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to move into a smaller residence.
Retirees are downsizing these days, giving up oversized and empty nests for apartments that are easier to care for.
adjective
verb
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to reduce the operating costs of a company by reducing the number of people it employs
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to reduce the size of or produce a smaller version of (something)
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to upgrade (a computer system) by replacing a mainframe or minicomputer with a network of microcomputers Compare rightsize
Discover More
Downsize is a recent euphemism for “fire, lay off.” Company managers often use this term in an attempt to soften the blow of wide-scale layoffs.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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downsizesimple
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downsizessimple
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have downsizedperfect
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has downsizedperfect
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am downsizingprogressive
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are downsizingprogressive
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is downsizingprogressive
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have been downsizingperfect progressive
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has been downsizingperfect progressive
Past
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downsizedsimple
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had downsizedperfect
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was downsizingprogressive
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were downsizingprogressive
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had been downsizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of downsize
Explanation
To downsize is to make something smaller. You might downsize your collection of vintage china by selling everything that's nicked or chipped. You can downsize the items you own by giving them away, and you can downsize your living situation by moving from a huge house to a very small apartment. When a company downsizes, it almost always means it's reducing the number of employees, making the company smaller by laying them off. This last meaning has only been around since the 1980s.
Vocabulary lists containing downsize
"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 8
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A Dog Called Homeless
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for January 21–January 27, 2023
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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:
Though a significant downsize from a house, Andy says it's not necessarily much cheaper.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
He suggests they potentially downsize tourism or urbanisation to protect coral -- a "difficult political question" for those who want to keep Okinawa's economy thriving.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
“If it’s not the right thing and you downsize, it’s almost like a sentence.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
These layoffs are a part of a bigger effort to downsize Microsoft.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
As indicated earlier, any effort to downsize dramatically our nation’s prisons would inspire fierce resistance by those faced with losing jobs, investments, and other benefits provided by the current system.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
The layoffs will take effect on Sept. 28 as the company downsizes its workforce in a shift to AI.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
The on-site football coverage was swallowed up by cost cuts as the conference downsizes operations.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 29, 2023
Such agreements will need to withstand the test of time as the company holding the department stores downsizes further, shutting down locations on which the e-commerce business relies, the sources added.
From Reuters ● Dec. 3, 2021
The moving van fire once made the decision for him — everything must go! — now as he downsizes, he arranges his possessions into five piles in the basement.
From Washington Post ● May 28, 2019
As the military downsizes and returns to pre-war force levels or below, many of those leaving the service will take advantage of the post-9/11 GI Bill to obtain a university education.
From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2014
He was downsized, and when his unemployment benefits ran out, he began collecting Social Security one year before reaching his full retirement age.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
Jan-Niklas Hustedt remembers going to techno parties in the abandoned canteen of a pump factory that had drastically downsized after reunification, in his hometown of Oschersleben.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
The states allege that HUD’s targeting of state antidiscrimination policies comes after it downsized its own workforce and significantly reduced its ability to investigate housing discrimination complaints and enforce fair housing laws.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2026
I should note that no one in this story is particularly wealthy — these are ordinary retired people who downsized from “family” homes.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 3, 2026
After more than a decade in their two-room spread in the Aircraft Loads Laboratory, Dorothy and the remaining women had been downsized to the new office in 1251.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
Steel mill and other employers, can help revive Gary’s fortunes, Melton said from City Hall, a few blocks from the mill that remains the city’s largest employer despite years of downsizing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Federal downsizing has waned since Elon Musk left his post last year as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
Caregivers “report depleting savings, taking on debt, paying bills late, even downsizing their homes in order to afford the cost of care,” said George Kueppers, senior research manager at the NAC.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Kevin Grolig, a 59-year-old real-estate agent in the D.C. metro area, started noticing that his clients were delaying downsizing their homes because their adult children were still living there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
He tried not to breathe too deeply as he cleaned, wary of dangers floating in the air, until his manager told him he was being fired because of a downsizing.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
