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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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Proponents suggested that the build-down be stretched out until 1996 to give both sides time to make orderly reductions as they modern ize weapons systems.

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

Part of the beauty of the original "build-down" approach was that it promised to be simple.

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

If we are to build up to the level of our best opportunities, we must build down to solid foundation on the sense of obligation.

From Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O by Reed, Thomas B. (Thomas Brackett)

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