scale down

Idioms  

1. Reduce the size or cost of, as in The owners decided to scale down wages. This expression, along with the related scale up, which refers to an increase, alludes to scale in the sense of “a fixed standard.” [Late 1800s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scale down

"Altermagnets would make transport of information radically more efficient. That could allow technology to scale down and be less power consuming."

From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026

Soaring costs are already forcing industries to scale down their energy consumption, a process known as demand destruction, where businesses and consumers are forced to cut back to balance the massive supply shortfall.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

AI has this ability to optimize processes and decisions and then be able to decide if you want to scale up or scale down the amount of resources dynamically.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2025

After that, she has to find a way to scale down the West End production for a UK tour.

From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2025

Grandma set her scale down on the table.

From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds

Related Words

• curtail
• cut
• cut down
• decrease
• depreciate
• devalue
• diminish
• downgrade
• knock off
• lessen
• pare
• slash
• soften