top-down

[ top-doun ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

relating to, originating with, or directed by those of highest rank:
a centralized, top-down organization with a chain of command reporting up from every corner of the earth.
organized or proceeding from the larger, more general structure to smaller, more detailed units, as in processing information:
Top-down investing looks at the big picture, or how the overall economy drives the markets, and then focuses on individual stocks.
Computers. noting or relating to a methodology used in the design and coding of programs that takes a high-level description of a problem and successively breaks it into smaller and simpler subunits.

top-down

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First recorded in 1940–45; 1970–75 top-down fordef 3; adjective use of the adverb phrase “from the top down ”

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As dependency on D.C. wells from the bottom up, it grows ever more fashionable from the top down.

We need to challenge this top-down decree that all web connections should, by default, be child-friendly.

The lack of available candidates is a bottom-up problem, and not necessarily a top-down problem.

What was once a far more hierarchical, top-down, and force-fed relationship is much flatter and more voluntary.

These top-down schemes need city-size investment, and the citizen does not need to worry about the consequences, we are told.

Wheel-spokes whirred in the air and he saw a buggy, with the top down, rattling down another street in a cloud of dust.

This is a 1956 Cadillac, four-door touring car with the top down.

Did you notice anything else on the building as you scanned it from the top down, or from the bottom up?

This makes a neat lining and then I just pour in the nuts and fold the top down.

Carlisle, choking over the inflammatory draught, set the silver top down on the bureau.

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