letdown
or let-down
a decrease in volume, force, energy, etc.: a letdown in sales; a general letdown of social barriers.
disillusionment, discouragement, or disappointment: The job was a letdown.
depression; deflation: He felt a terrible letdown at the end of the play.
the accelerated movement of milk into the mammary glands of lactating mammals upon stimulation, as by massage or suckling.
Aeronautics. the descent of an aircraft from a higher to a lower altitude preparatory to making an approach and landing or to making a target run or the like.
Origin of letdown
1Words Nearby letdown
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use letdown in a sentence
It was an unprecedented public involvement in the normally secret negotiations, and it was a painful letdown for many that you could see coming hours before it happened.
What’s Behind the Effort to Recall Council President Jen Campbell | Scott Lewis | February 9, 2021 | Voice of San DiegoSo many times through the first 18 games of the season, the Wizards have come out on the wrong end of these fights, mostly because of a defensive letdown.
Wizards rise to their own defense, beat the Heat on the road | Ava Wallace | February 4, 2021 | Washington PostIf there’s a letdown of behaviors, it’s going to find a way.
D.C. region hits 11-week high in coronavirus infections but avoids spikes seen elsewhere | Dana Hedgpeth, Laura Vozzella, Lola Fadulu, Rebecca Tan | October 28, 2020 | Washington PostIt doesn’t fly around like a drone, though, so it’s kind of a letdown after the previous announcement.
Amazon’s Fall 2020 products announcements include a security camera drone that flies around your house | Stan Horaczek | September 24, 2020 | Popular-ScienceWhen I came back, I just knew that it would feel a bit like a letdown after having had the chance to play in Australia for a full season.
Conducting the Mathematical Orchestra From the Middle | Rachel Crowell | September 2, 2020 | Quanta Magazine
Over the next couple of years, though, some felt a letdown when they discovered that Borges had written no long works.
Borges Had A Genius For Literature But Not Love Or Much Else | Allen Barra | October 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTMarlow: Only a bit of a letdown up until the final handful of episodes!
‘Orange Is the New Black’: Inside the Wild S2 Finale and What’s Next for Season 3 | Kevin Fallon, Marlow Stern | July 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTKent Sepkowitz wrote this past spring that other HIV "cures" didn't last long and this one was likely to be a letdown.
After the election night letdown the film jumps back to Christmas 2006.
Inside ‘Mitt,’ Netflix’s All-Access Mitt Romney Documentary | Marlow Stern | January 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe film is a hard-to-find creature, a smart rom-com that captures the exuberance of falling in love, and the inevitable letdown.
Someone else—Crag was never quite sure who—wanted an exact description of how the Aztec had handled during letdown.
First on the Moon | Jeff SuttonKnowing that nothing was in sight but waiting was a letdown after the activity of the predawn hours.
Smugglers' Reef | John BlaineFor most people, the experience of hypnosis is something of a letdown.
When You Don't Know Where to Turn | Steven J. BartlettNo matter how you looked at the situation, the kid was in for a big letdown.
A Knyght Ther Was | Robert F. Young
British Dictionary definitions for let down
(also preposition) to lower
to fail to fulfil the expectations of (a person); disappoint
to undo, shorten, and resew (the hem) so as to lengthen (a dress, skirt, etc)
to untie (long hair that is bound up) and allow to fall loose
to deflate: to let down a tyre
a disappointment
the gliding descent of an aircraft in preparation for landing
the release of milk from the mammary glands following stimulation by the hormone oxytocin
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with letdown
Cause to descend, lower, as in They let down the sails. [Mid-1100s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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