scale down

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]

Example Sentences

In the next year or two, there will once again be questions about whether he should remain a two-way player, or perhaps whether he should scale down his workload.

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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.

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Djokovic has scaled down his playing time considerably over recent seasons, tailoring his schedule to focus on the majors.

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It’s still unclear why Tesla Diner decided to scale down its menu within such a short period of time.

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Where the zoning code had envisioned a city of 10 million people — more than New York — ordinances and ballot measures scaled down that number to 4.1 million by the 1980s.

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Related Words

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